Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1491153
TRUTH IS OF NO COLOUR WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT SUNDAY • 29 JANUARY 2023 • ISSUE 1213 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday PAGES 12-13 Rising population leads to need for energy distribution centre at disability hub site PAGE 4 NAXXAR €1.95 You can marry, vote and have sex at 16 but you can't be sent to jail PAGES 8-9 Right or wrong? JOE GIGLIO KURT SANSONE A magistrate had "real suspi- cion" that police officers may have been involved in the grue- some murder of Lino Cauchi, information revealed for the first time shows. Cauchi went missing in Febru- ary 1982 and his dismembered body was found in a well in Bus- kett in November 1985. Nobody has ever been charged with the murder. The shocking revelation comes from the police file submitted in the court records of a consti- tutional case Cauchi's widow, Anna Cassar, and his son, Paolo, filed against the State. Judge Francesco Depasquale last week awarded the heirs €615,000 in compensation after concluding the State failed to properly investigate the mur- der, pointing out several serious shortcomings. 'Police were involved' in Lino Cauchi 1982 murder ROBERTA METSOLA could be set to become the European People's Party lead candidate in the 2024 European elections, a key role that could mean she will be tipped for President of the European Commission should the European People's Party claim victory at the polls. But that political course is fraught with challenges - for Metsola, for the EPP's leader Manfred Weber, and possibly for even the Maltese prime minister himself, Robert Abela. Metsola this week was described by Weber – the EPP's own lead candidate in 2019 but denied the role of EC boss when Europe's leaders chose Ursula von der Leyen over him – as one of the centre-right's "two very capable women in top positions" that could be "excellent frontrunners" for 'spitzenkandidat' in 2024. Indeed, Metsola might well be Weber's preferred choice, a factor that also depends on Von der Leyen's forthcoming decision whether to contest or not. "I see my main task as leading the EPP and facilitating the selection process," Weber told the German press this week... reminding them how he was denied the top job five years earlier despite the EPP's victory. PAGES 8-9 EPP boss flirts with European hard right in build-up to 2024 campaign, with Roberta Metsola poised as compromise 'lead candidate' for a shot at president of the European Commission Matthew Vella Metsola courted for European Commission president Inquiring magistrate told Homicide Commission in 1996, of "real suspicion" that Maltese police were involved in murder of accountant suspected of laundering money for Labour minister The time for 'theatrics' on law and order is over INTERVIEW MT2