Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1037786
NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 10 OCTOBER 2018 2 YANNICK PACE ECONOMY minister Chris Cardona insisted that attempts by 'some Opposition members' to link him to the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia were ridiculous. Italian newspaper La Repub- blica claimed on Monday that Cardona had attended a bach- elor's party, four months before the journalist was killed, along with Alfred Degiorgio one of the men charged with her kill- ing, and some 40 other people. Cardona was asked by Nation- alist MP and the Caruana Gali- zia's family lawyer Jason Azzo- pardi, whether he had spoken to the police since the article was published, and whether he had been asked to explain his presence at the party. The minister accused Azzo- pardi of abusing of his parlia- mentary privilege – legal im- munity enjoyed by members of parliament – insisting that the efforts were being made to link him to the murder at all costs. He insisted that as a criminal lawyer and a politician it was to be expected that he had many contacts across society and that he regularly received invita- tions to events "where there is everyone". The Opposition, he said, was doing it as it had done with the Egrant affair, and was showing that it is "willing to jump on any bandwagon, even one related to murder". Cardona said that any politi- cian that had been an MP for a while should be disappointed at the fact that matters had reached such an unprecedent- ed level. "To try an implicate a politi- cian, who has a past as a lawyer, and to try and implicate him in a murder just because he was at a wedding or bachelor's party is ridiculous," Cardona said. He made reference to the fact that former Prime Minister Ed- die Fenech Adami met known criminal Joseph Fenech, known as Żeppi l-Ħafi, under the Re- gional road bridge and asked Busuttil and Azzopardi how they could interpret events so differently. "Is there anyone in this cham- ber, that can exclude that they were ever at a reception where there was a person of bad con- duct?" he asked. "Is there any- one here that can exclude, par- ticularly those who are lawyers, that they have never received a phone call from someone who is not of good conduct?" The minister appealed to MPs and journalists not to keep up the "mental arrogance", adding that what was happening went beyond simply getting some political advantage. Premature to talk about addi- tional investigations – Muscat Answering journalists' ques- tions earlier in the day, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the information contained in La Repubblica's report had al- legedly come from the ongoing magisterial inquiry, insisting that this attested to the fact that investigations were really and truly underway. "[The allegations] came from a witness who was giving tes- timony to the investigating magistrate – this goes to show that an investigation is taking place," Muscat said. Asked whether he believed there should be an independ- ent inquiry into the murder, Muscat said he believed that the ongoing magisterial inquiry should first be allowed to be concluded. "We were given a strong legal opinion that we should wait for the current in- quiry to end first," Muscat said. Delia opts for wait-and-see approach In comments to MaltaToday, PN leader Adrian Delia said the allegations were part of a wider story that would not go away and would continue to disturb people because the whole truth has not yet come out. He said that while three men had been charged with the murder, there was still no infor- mation on who committed the crime, or whether the govern- ment did enough to prevent the murder. Delia insisted it was govern- ment's responsibility, one year after the murder, to ensure that all institutions were do- ing enough to get at the person who commissioned the crime. "We do not know enough whether government and its institutions did enough to pre- vent the murder... we have to know whether all the efforts the government said it was put- ting into solving the murder case were enough and what was their result," Delia said. Asked directly whether he be- lieved Cardona should resign, Delia said the minister "was definitely part of the investiga- tion" including into whether her murder could have been avoided and said that he would be waiting to see Cardona's ex- planation. Minister dismisses claims linking him to Daphne Caruana Galizia murder CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Darmanin was investigated over fuel smuggling but never charged when a fishing vessel that be- longed to him was impounded in 2013. He was ostensibly known to Caruana Galizia, given that her husband Peter Caruana Galizia was his lawyer in civil proceedings, at least up to March 2016. La Repubblica made no reference to this fact in their reportage. Peter Caruana Galizia was Darmanin's lawyer in a case instituted against him by his former partner, Labour candidate Rachel Tua. In the blog, Caruana Gali- zia described the different patterns with which fuel smugglers and drug traffickers were being killed. It was uploaded on the morning when a powerful car bomb killed John Camilleri, known as Giovann tas- Sapun, in Buġibba. Caruana Galizia linked Darmanin's fishing vessel to one of the victims of a car bomb earlier that year. She later included a short clari- fication by Darmanin that the vessel referred to in the story no longer belonged to him. However, in the latest instalment of the Daphne Project, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Monday, said that after hanging up from Caruana Galizia, Darmanin first called Economy Minister Chris Cardona and then Alfred Degiorgio. The newspaper said phone records that form part of the murder inquiry show that Darmanin made the phone calls immediately after hanging up. The nature of the conversation between Dar- manin and the other two men is unknown. La Repubblica said it had Darmanin's name but stopped short of releasing it because it could not get through to him. Darmanin is evasive When contacted by MaltaToday yesterday af- ternoon, Darmanin said he was unaware of the news report by La Repubblica. However, he did confirm that he spoke to Caru- ana Galizia in October 2016 but was evasive over the alleged phone calls to Cardona and Degiorgio. Darmanin then cut short the conversation, in- sisting he had a meeting to attend. He said that he would call back after two hours. He did not. MaltaToday sent its questions by WhatsApp but received no replies by the time of going to print. Darmanin's name had also appeared in court proceedings that concerned a certain Martin Cachia from Marsaskala, who was killed in a car bomb in January 2016. The court records included a letter, signed by Darmanin, and dated 11 December, 2015, ask- ing an unspecified recipient to permit Cachia to travel with him to Egypt. Darmanin was listed as the director of Darmanin Fisheries Limited. Darmanin had told Carua- na Galizia that Cachia had forged his signature. Smear campaign Cardona has so far failed to clarify the nature of the relation- ship he had with Dar- manin, insisting the report in La Repubblica is part of a smear cam- paign. The newspaper also re- ported that Cardona and Al- fred Degiorgio had been present together for a bachelor's party held in a villa in Fawwara on 29 June 2017. In Parliament yesterday, Cardona said that no lawyer, especially those who worked in the crimi- nal field like him, could vouch that in social events to which they are invited, there are no persons of bad conduct. He said it was "ridiculous" to try and connect him to the Caruana Galizia murder. The evidence quoted by La Repubblica is cir- cumstantial and does not imply any link between Caruana Galizia's murder and either Cardona or Darmanin. The journalist was killed on 16 October 2017 in a car bomb shortly after leaving her house in Bidnija. Three men were arrested and charged with her murder in December 2017. The case against brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio, and Vince Muscat, is ongoing. In court, it emerged that Alfred Degiorgio and Muscat had acted as spotters on a hill above Bid- nija. Alfred was the one who informed George of Caruana Galizia's last movements before the bomb was triggered by an SMS. So far, the mastermind behind the murder has eluded justice. Darmanin was investigated over fuel smuggling but never charged