When you’ve just won a court case, you’re a poor judge of the qualities of the judge who ruled in your favour. Almost as poor a judge as you would be of the judge who just ruled against you. You must take my opinion of Judge Toni Abela with the seasoning the context I’m in [...]

The Constitutional Court presided by Judge Toni Abela ruled today on a case I brought in September 2020 after I was denied reasonable access to assess living conditions in the prison and in detention centres. The court ruled that the government breached my fundamental right to free expression when they refused or ignored my requests [...]

Shadow minister Karol Aquilina released a statement by the PN signalling opposition to changes to the law that gives the state the power to freeze assets belonging to people charged with money laundering The PN statement said the government is rushing the changes through Parliament “for reasons that are obvious and known” in an apparent [...]

This is a speech I delivered yesterday in the Brussels building of the European Parliament at the event launching the political manifesto of the CHANCE network of European anti-mafia civil society organisations. The event was sponsored by the Socialist and Democrats Group in the European Parliament and hosted by Socialist MEP and former Italian chief [...]

This is what a flight on the new airline replacing Air Malta looks like. If you're struggling to tell the difference, they changed the ties and the lanyards. The rest is the same. Ah yes, they wiped several hundreds of millions in accumulated losses over time. Look, I'm happy as the next guy that the [...]

In March 2021, the Maltese government was desperate to convince the Financial Action Task Force to remove Malta from the list of "grey", untrustworthy, financial jurisdictions. One of the most important targets set to the Maltese government was to show they were serious about recovering assets from criminals. The logic is that criminals want to [...]

It is being bandied about that discussions are underway between the government and Air Malta pilots. They are the ones who, if chosen, will be flying the same planes and most of the same routes under the new “KM” brand when their old employer winds down early next year. Pilots who have been flying Air [...]

The law provides for the protection of workers’ rights in a transfer of business situation.  Basically, what happens is that when there is a transfer of business, workers’ acquired rights are protected, such that there is an automatic switch over of employment (and the rights attendant thereon) from the “old” to the “new” employer. If [...]

It is true that where people are involved the temptation of corruption is present and the possibility that it occurs is inescapable. It doesn’t get better if it’s more sophisticated. But it can be somehow worse if it is cheaply and brazenly done. A kickback on the back of some major public contract laundered through [...]

From my article in The Sunday Times yesterday: "Never has the gap between the thinking of the government and the thinking of civil society about what to do with corruption been wider than it is now. We think about victims and how to alleviate the hardship they suffer because of the greed of the few [...]