Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1175000
NEWS 8 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 9 OCTOBER 2019 MATTHEW VELLA THE Maltese professor believed to have instigated the allegation of Russian dirt on the Clinton campaign in the US elec- tion of 2016 "spoke too much to be a spy", a former colleague of the Rome campus that once served as a branch of the University of Malta. Vincenzo Scotti, an 86-year-old for- mer minister of the interior in the Christian democrat administration of Giulio Andreotti, has disputed con- spiracy theories advanced by Donald Trump's allies that Mifsud was a coun- ter-intelligence spy despatched by the FBI or CIA to derail the US election. Scotti, a colleague of Mifsud when the Maltese professor worked at Link Campus, has called the allegation "to- tal nonsense". "He talked too much to be a spy. Take it from a man who has seen a fair bit of history, who was a minister of the interior, who has worked deep in the institutions, and comes from a the rigorous political school of Christian democracy…" Scotti told Italian news- paper La Repubblica. "Mifsud is a conservative who has friendships in the Labour Party who, given his experience as chief of staff of former foreign minister, enjoyed a first-class curriculum, had an impres- sive network of contacts, starting with a personal friendship with Boris John- son, who has ended up in this story superficially and I believe, because of a certain dose of arrogance," Scotti said. Scotti laughed off claims by Trump's allies that Mifsud was the conduit for Russians on the leaked emails from the Democratic National Congress that were used against Clinton. "In this university, Italian intelli- gence executives come to talk about academic issues. The operatives in charge of collecting information or recruiting agents do not come. As for the Russians, we explained it to the Americans four years ago that there was a global campaign of Russian and Chinese disinformation. Go figure." 'Joseph Mifsud a spy? He spoke too much' Rome university colleague Vincenzo Scotti on Maltese professor spy claims: 'nonsense' DAVID HUDSON JUSTICE Minister Owen Bon- nici and Opposition Leader Adrian Delia clashed in Parlia- ment on Tuesday over the Indi- vidual Investor Programme. "Your predecessor Simon Bu- suttil criticised the government of corruption but not once did he come out against the IIP scheme. If it bothers you so much, I would suggest you all come out against it," Bonnici told Opposition Leader Adrian Delia. Delia asked Bonnici in Parlia- ment on Tuesday whether the government was weighing the damage to Malta's reputation against the IIP, criticising the scheme as a mere outright sale rather than an investment. "You're wrong when you say that this is an outright sale. Sale is when a price, the object and the people involved are predetermined. This isn't that because it isn't a matter of pay- ing money and that's that. The European Commission said in its analysis of the scheme that Malta has a strong system of due diligence in place," Bonnici said. He challenged Delia to stop "confusing" the electorate and for the Opposition to either come out in favour or against the IIP scheme and to confirm whether the Nationalist Party had done a U-turn on this issue since the time of Simon Busut- til's leadership. The IIP came under fire once more after one of its principal agents, Chetcuti Cauchi Advi- sors, had its license suspended after a French TV sting revealed how the company's director, Jean-Philippe Chetcuti, boasted of his government connections and said he could guarantee a passport sale despite a potential client's criminal record. Bonnici continued to lam- bast the Opposition leader by referring to his Twitter slip-up on Monday evening when De- lia wrote that an "independ- ent magisterial inquiry" into Daphne Caruana Galizia's as- sassination was needed in the wake of news reports on pos- sible suspects behind her mur- der. "Either the Opposition Leader doesn't know that an independ- ent magisterial inquiry has been going on since the assassination took place or he is saying that he does not believe that magis- trate Neville Camilleri is inde- pendent," Bonnici said. In his turn to respond, Delia said that Bonnici hadn't replied to his question in the nine min- utes that Bonnici held the con- versational floor. "You didn't answer my ques- tion and didn't say whether the government thought about whether the dirty passport scheme has been weighed against Malta's reputational damage," Delia said. Bonnici reiterated that if the IIP scheme fundamentally bothered the Opposition, it should declare its resistance to the scheme, something, he said, that it had never done. "You know what damages our reputation? Not the pro- grammes, not the investments, but whoever is abroad slinging mud on our country and show- ering it with destructive criti- cism," he concluded. Justice minister, Opposition leader spar over passport sale scheme Justice Minister Owen Bonnici and Opposition Leader Adrian Delia