Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1483500
TRUTH IS OF NO COLOUR WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT SUNDAY • 6 NOVEMBER 2022 • ISSUE 1991 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday Defund the PA? "As things stand, the only option is a total dismantling" MT2 INTERVIEW Astrid Vella KURT SANSONE AT least two former Pilatus Bank officials will not be pros- ecuted despite a magistrate's order, after Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg issued a nolle prosequi. MaltaToday understands that the decision not to prosecute could be part of a deal requir- ing the two officials to testify against other high profile bank officials. Rule of law NGO Repubblika has already hinted in an ongo- ing court case that Buttigieg issued the nolle prosequi in the summer of 2021 against former Pilatus advisor Mehmet Tas- li and former chief risk officer Antoniella Gauci. The names have not been of- ficially confirmed and it is un- clear whether other bank offi- cials benefitted from the AG's decision not to prosecute. The terms of the deal are also un- clear. However, legal sources have questioned the judiciousness of using the nolle prosequi route to secure testimony, especially after the bungle in the HSBC heist case when the AG entered into a plea deal with one of the accused, who later refused to testify against the co-accused. Tasli and Gauci were in a list of seven subjects indicated in the Pilatus Bank inquiry as sus- pects over money laundering and other financial crimes. The inquiry by Magistrate Ian Far- rugia into the now shuttered bank concluded in December 2020. International arrest warrants against the foreign subjects were signed by the magistrate a couple of months later. PGS 2-3 Pilatus officials go scot-free in exchange for testimony Philharmonic CEO Sigmund Mifsud charged with suborning harassment victim PAGE 2 CEO charged Farewell to K.M.B. Former Labour PM who presided over the harrowing 1980s, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, dies at 89 PHOTOGRAPHY RAY ATTARD/MEDIATODAY Nicole Meilak in Arizona for the U.S. Midterms PAGES 14-15 FEAR & LOATHING €1.95 PAGE 13