David Casa has written to the UAE Ambassador in Brussels asking his government to cooperate more on the 17 Black bank account allegedly used to pay Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi bribes from Yorgen Fenech of Tumas Group and the Electrogas consortium. In his Egrant inquiry report, Magistrate Aaron Bugeja lamented he got no response [...]
There’s one thing I still fail to understand here with all the talk of magisterial inquiries. Where in the world do the suspects define when and to what extent they are going to be investigated? Look at this video of a One TV journalist challenging Adrian Delia to call for a magisterial inquiry into the [...]
No one is to blame for what happened when an Islamophobic, white-supremacist, murdering terrorist scribbled ‘Malta 1565’ on his murder weapon along with other historical citations as a sort of totem to inspire his vicious crime. No one, I mean, except of course himself and those who supported him. But we should be a little [...]
Statement by Reżistenza Malta: A few days before the 40th anniversary of when Malta freed itself from the last traces of colonial power, we’re dismayed that the country’s reputation went to the dogs. Malta’s name has become associated with lack of transparency and rule of law. Maltese who attend meetings in international fora know this [...]
The Italian chapter of Amnesty International this morning handed over a petition signed by 45,000 people demanding the Maltese authorities do everything possible to identify and punish the masterminds and the executors of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. But the petitioners also joined calls for an inquiry to determine whether Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination [...]
US Financial Crime blogger Kenneth Rijock asked in a post yesterday whether the licencing of Ali Sadr Hasheminejad to open a European bank in Malta "was facilitated through the artful payment of bribes?" That's because US law enforcement agencies were aware of Ali Sadr's activities on behalf of Iran as early as 2011 and in [...]
No doubt you saw this video making the rounds. See if you can beat this quip I got from someone who sent me the video earlier: "That's your typical Maltese developer defecating on the law"
One more report that reminds Edward Scicluna that the Panama scandal and the shame brought on to our country by a government that protects politicians exposed by it, is not yet "history". It is still news. Remarkably this DW report actually remembers the now famed Edward Scicluna quote. It's one of those lines that is [...]
Adrian Delia and his team, that as far as can be ascertained is now chaired by Pierre Portelli assisted by Pierre Portelli and includes Pierre Portelli, Pierre Portelli and Pierre Portelli with Pierre Portelli as secretary — a bit like that zany scene from Being John Malkovich — are managing the current umpteenth crisis as [...]
Adrian Delia’s explanations about his involvement in laundering proceeds from a Soho prostitution ring have evolved with time. Beneath the blanket categorical denial that he actually committed any wrongdoing, explaining away the details that have emerged has evolved as we became more aware of them. At first his answer to Daphne Caruana Galizia, who broke [...]
There is nothing in Owen Bonnici’s statement of yesterday that suggests the government is doing anything but consolidating its grip on power. It will rely on a compliant opposition to do so because many of the changes proposed, or rather the vague hints that were dropped at yesterday’s press conference, will require a two-thirds majority [...]
Image from disruptive telephony.com It’s a good thing our court administration is not handling the next lunar landing. Let’s just accept things at face value for a minute. Witnesses who wanted to testify that Neville Gafa’ solicited and accepted bribes for medical visas trudged through war-torn Libya at personal risk to a court-room [...]
Those videos yesterday of the prime minister answering journalists’ questions on the state of play of the investigations into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia are profoundly disturbing. This one is from Lovin' Malta's YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/INSY1ymfyPk This is really not the occasion for the prime minister to give us all a patronising, knowing [...]
Helena Dalli’s husband is not accepting the Appeal’s Court decision that Caroline Muscat did not libel him in her Times of Malta investigations on works on his property. A decision by the Court of Appeal ought to have been the final word on the matter but Helena Dalli’s husband won’t take no for an answer. [...]
John Philips, veteran Rome correspondent for British newspapers who now writes for Italian English-language newspaper The Italian Insider was in Malta this weekend to cover the vigil marking 17 months since the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Here's a link to his piece. Look at this choice quote: "In a miserable measure recalling the practices [...]
A 69-year-old man was standing in the water in Pretty Bay, Biżebbuġa. He was holding a lilo on which he had his three cute dogs. The dogs attracted the attention of some children who were playing nearby. They went to get a closer look and play with the dogs. Most of the children were boys, [...]
Il Tirreno is the newspaper of record of Tuscany. On Sunday it carried this summary of a presentation I gave in Livorno last week. They introduce me as a Times journalist presumably because my Sunday Times articles come up on Google. It's far from the worst thing I've ever been wrongly described as.
The attempted frame-up of David Casa shows all the hallmarks of what Joseph Muscat’s supporters wanted the Egrant case to be like. It was cooked up in the middle of the night at the desk of a propagandist who describes himself, wholly undeservedly, as a journalist, quoting a source who is a fantasist mired in [...]
Ranier Fsadni made a very important point last Sunday writing on The Shift News. He said he was not sold on the idea that the protest at the Great Siege memorial in Valletta was removed every day because of some naive ambition on the part of the government to get people to forget the matter [...]
I met Zachary Balde in Livorno a few days ago. He is a 30-year old man from Senegal who has been living in Italy for four years. He told his story in fluent Italian which I am translating here. This is a long read. My name is Zachary Balde and I was born on the [...]