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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 APRIL 2024 A judge's timely reminder that getting back to normal is still a tough trek Editorial MR Justice Lawrence Mintoff did not hold any punches when calling out the inappropriateness of having a busi- nessperson like Keith Schembri directing the show at Castille. The judge lambasted Schembri for not disclosing his "fraternal" friendship with Yorgen Fenech as he sat in on highly sensitive briefings related to the police investiga- tions into Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder. Fenech stands charged with commissioning and paying for Caruana Galizia's murder. He has denied the charges and the case against him is still in pre-trial stage. Mintoff was delivering judgment on a case initiated by Fenech in a bid to remove Superintendent Keith Arnaud from the murder case. The judge rejected Fenech's at- tempt. But the judge went much further than simply disman- tling Fenech's case. Mintoff reflected on Fenech's admis- sion that he had allegedly been receiving sensitive infor- mation related to the murder investigation from former deputy commissioner Silvio Valletta and Schembri, find- ing it incredulous that Arnaud should be targeted in this way. Fenech had claimed Arnaud had a conflict of interest because Schembri found his wife a government job. The judge had nothing of this. "The court finds that if there was anyone who had a conflict of interest in the en- suing situation, it was Keith Schembri, who continued to attend briefings at Castille, even when Melvin Theuma's pardon request was being discussed, without disclos- ing his 'fraternal' friendship between him and Yorgen Fenech, even after Yorgen Fenech became a suspect and his mobile phone was tapped by the Security Services." Mintoff's words could not be clearer on the inappropri- ateness of appointing someone like Schembri to such a powerful position inside the Office of the Prime Minister. "The court adds that it was inevitable that the appoint- ment of a leading businessman in Malta as chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister, with all the entan- glements and wide ranging contacts with the business world, would bring with it many situations of conflicting interests," the judge said, adding that this had created se- rious doubts about whether, in such a delicate situation, Schembri's personal interests would take the upper hand and prevail over the public interest. Mintoff's scathing remarks on Schembri's conflict of interest are ostensibly, the strongest to be made by a re- spected member of the judiciary and are an indirect re- buke of Joseph Muscat. Schembri was thrust into a powerful position by the former prime minister. Muscat trusted Schembri blindly and stuck by him even when the Panama Papers scandal broke and subsequently when it became known that 17 Black (which had been listed as a client company in pa- perwork for Schembri's Panama company) belonged to Yorgen Fenech. The question now is what is the government going to do about a recommendation made by the judge that un- disclosed conflicts of interest such as those attributed to Schembri should be criminalised. We will not hold our breath. Nothing will happen. The judge's words will be forgotten and life will go on as nor- mal. Schembri is out of the picture, they will tell us. Un- fortunately, Muscat is not as Labour exponents continue to court him. But there are other questions that emerge from the 155-page judgment. What are the police doing about the people who allegedly leaked sensitive information about the murder investigation to Fenech? Mr Justice Mintoff was unequivocal in his assessment of these leaks and the danger they caused to the police officers and soldiers who raided the Marsa potato shed in December 2017 to arrest the three hitmen. "Whatever shortcomings might have occurred during the investigation into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia… it is highly disgraceful that Inspector Keith Arnaud (he was subsequently promoted to superinten- dent), because of other people's conflicts of interest, was put in this pitiful position, where that which he was offi- cially and confidentially reporting on during briefings at the OPM was revealed in the most villainous and disloyal manner, to the point where those arrested at the Mar- sa potato shed on December 4, 2017 had already been tipped off about their impending arrests. As a result, the lives of Inspector Arnaud and those colleagues of his in the police force and the army who participated in that raid, were placed in grave danger." These strong words need to be backed up by action. If Fenech was receiving confidential police information, the people behind this gross breach of trust should be prosecuted. Although the judge defended Arnaud's integrity, the ruling was also critical of the way police carried out their investigations. One of the issues flagged was how the police handled searches on Schembri's property and the incident involv- ing his 'lost' mobile phone. The judge pointed out that when police had searched Schembri's Mellieha home, they had failed to also carry out a simultaneous search of his office at Castille and his other businesses. Mintoff observed that when Schembri was asked to provide the passwords for his cloud data to the police and he refused because it contained 'commercially sensi- tive information', the police meekly accepted the expla- nation. This police attitude of deference because the person in front of them was a powerful man is at best a display of spinelessness, and at worst collusion of the worst kind. Mr Justice Mintoff's ruling was yet another reminder that the road back to normality is still a long one indeed. Quote of the Week "It is highly disgraceful that Inspector Keith Arnaud, because of other people's conflicts of interest, was put in this pitiful position, where that which he was officially and confidentially reporting on during briefings at the OPM was revealed in the most villainous and disloyal manner." Judge Lawrence Mintoff in a scathing reference to former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri when delivering judgment on Yorgen Fenech's request to have Arnaud removed from the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation. The judge rejected the request. MaltaToday 10 years ago 12 April 2014 State moves in to take control of local wardens THE running of Malta's local enforcement sys- tem has become too costly to keep up with the expectations of the two private companies which provide Malta's and Gozo's 44 local councils with wardens, CCTV cam- eras, and speed cameras, and the only way it can survive is to issue more tickets and col- lect more fines. But Labour seems to be living up to a warn- ing sounded by Joseph Muscat in 2011 that the "sub- sidised racket" of local enforcement would longer be tolerated under a new govern- ment. "Yesterday, parliamentary secretary for local government José Herrera unveiled plans for a new centralised unit to take over the manning of local wardens. Herrera has pledged a 30% reduction in costs - a reduction that industry insiders de- duce can only be achieved by cutting out the private sector. But the parliamentary secretary said that today's system was built on the misleading as- sumption that it should make money for local councils when in reality, uncollected fines and a decline in contraventions and speed- ing offences being committed, has rendered the system unsustainble to run. Herrera's solution will be to turn the LES in- to a national unit of wardens serving councils, rather than the private operators taking over 70% of the total fines issued over the years. Labour taking on 'subsidised racket Malta's local warden system is in the pro- cess of being reformed, 14 years after it was first introduced – but the jury is out on what government's plans for a centralised unit means for people like Kenneth De Martino, whose Guard & Warden Service runs the gamut of local enforcement services, deploy- ing wardens to the coun- cils, monitoring CCTV systems and also processing speed camera fines. ...