From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Faced by all these failures of the democratic framework, we preferred to live under the illusion that the courts would fiercely protect us. The reputation is not altogether undeserved. Some of our judges and magistrates are brilliant legal minds, fearless defenders of justice and pursuivants of truth: [...]
Scroll down for the text of my article this month in the Money Magazine. A link to the magazine is here. George Spiteri is a lucky guy. He was given €150,000 to retire from his position of HR Manager of the Malta Financial Services Authority which used to include the company registry. The same restructuring [...]
Nothing like a touch of poetry to brighten your weekend. Here are some verses sent in by a contributor known to me: Ian Ian Borg just loves his trees He chops them down with dreaded ease He widens roads and builds some more He rapes this country like a whore His latest pot hole [...]
Pia Zammit – actor, educator, activist – was photographed backstage during a break at an onstage performance of ‘Allo! ‘Allo! She was wearing a swastika on top of the costume of a French barmaid who pretends to be nice to Wehrmacht officers but secretly helps la résistance sabotage the German occupation and hide British airmen trapped [...]
Read first this court report of this morning’s second session in the trial of the three men accused of killing Daphne Caruana Galizia. I have done some digging up. I am informed by multiple sources that the lawyer for Alfred and George Degiorgio, William Cuschieri, has sent the technical reports and data provided by the [...]
Edward Scicluna, Chris Cardona and Konrad Mizzi appealed a decision by a Magistrate this week that they are added to the list of suspects in the inquiry investigating corruption and bribery in the privatisation of three public hospitals. Their appeal will be heard by Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera. The Ministers have already successfully appealed an [...]
This morning this website reported the conflict of interest of Alfred Pule appointed just last October by Minister Ian Borg to replace Matthew Pace who resigned his seat in the Planning Board after the conflict of interest scandal in the DB towers development case. This morning’s post on this website showed how Alfred Pule was [...]
The government declared in court today it changed its mind about appealing against a court decision that accepted Repubblika’s request that the question on whether Malta’s judges are truly independent is sent to the European Court of Justice. This means that the European Court will be asked to rule whether the power of Malta’s prime [...]
A Magistrate has accepted a request from NGO Repubblika for an inquiry into whether Jean Philippe Chetcuti, a senior lawyer at the Chetcuti Cauchi law firm, committed crimes when he was caught in a camera sting operation by French TV journalists admitting he could arrange for a Maltese passport for an African client with a [...]
Environment NGOs were pressing yesterday for Elizabeth Ellul’s resignation from the Planning Board. Things came to a head when the ruins of a room were approved by the Board she’s part of, for conversion into a sprawling villa out on a cliff-face in Qala. Elizabeth Ellul expected everyone to ignore her proximity to the developer, [...]
Just a quick note for Joseph Muscat, Owen Bonnici, Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, Edward Scicluna, Chris Cardona, Ian Borg and so on. You thought everyone would be too scared, too compromised, too blind to oppose you. You thought you could control all outcomes. And most of the time you were right. Many are scared, [...]
Magistrate Doreen Clarke accepted a request filed by NGO Repubblika and ordered an inquiry into the conduct of three government Ministers in the privatisation of three public hospitals. The Magistrate found that Repubblika’s allegations about crimes of money laundering and corruption involving Ministers Chris Cardona, Edward Scicluna and Konrad Mizzi deserve to be investigated. A [...]
Dredging up the dregs is what scraping the barrel is all about and when you watch the dregs scraping away at their own bottomless cesspit, it’s not a pretty sight. We witnessed this in all its putrid glory last week when, amongst all the copious corruption cases which constitute our daily fare, there was Saviour [...]
The government’s decision to appeal this morning’s court ruling that the question on whether the way Malta appoints its judges is in conflict with the EU Treaty should be referred to the European Court of Justice is a callous waste of time. That’s all this appeal achieves. The Court this morning did not decide Repubblika [...]
Sent in by urban planner Dr John Ebejer. For many years Dr Ebejer held various positions relating to planning and development at the Planning Authority, the Building Industry Consultative Council and relevant ministries. Part 1 of this piece was uploaded yesterday. Decisions on investment, development and planning can be fairly complex. In the past I [...]
Statement by Repubblika, #occupyjustice and manueldelia.com: On the 16th of every month we organise a vigil to remember Daphne Caruana Galizia and to call for truth and justice for her and for her journalism. We will continue to do this until truth is known and justice is served. But with all that is happening in [...]
Sent in by urban planner Dr John Ebejer. For many years Dr Ebejer held various positions relating to planning and development at the Planning Authority, the Building Industry Consultative Council and relevant ministries. Recently the Prime Minister called on developers to show less ‘greed’. This was his reaction to the strong criticism for the many [...]
MaltaToday’s monthly survey shows Joseph Muscat losing ground and Adrian Delia gaining some. The support of the former still exceeds the support of the latter two to one. But the shift is interesting because the PN over the last weeks made a pitch for xenophobes who would be prepared to change their response in a [...]
I didn’t expect Raphael Vassallo to like what I had to say in my article on how the mafia works. I spoke about omertà, the silent conspiracy of people who elect to say they believe the mafia does not exist. And then I used one example in a line Raphael Vassallo and MaltaToday has taken [...]
Instead of speaking about hundreds of millions of euro paid out to VGH and to Steward Health Care taken from the national health service budget while cancer patients fighting for their very lives beg for charity from the Community Chest Fund, we spent the last 24 hours wondering what was in Ivan Camilleri’s check-out trolley [...]