Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/181770
4 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER 2013 Transport museum proposed in Birkirkara garden mayor of Birkirkara to construct a bigger, hexagonal, two-storey kiosk in the garden was rejected by MEPA in 2011 due to its size. The railway station at Birkirkara is the best-preserved railway station in Malta. For a number of years, the station was used as the office for the local council. In recent years, it has been used as a childcare centre. The Malta Railway consisted of a single line from Valletta to Mdina operated between 1883 and 1931. During its lifetime, the railway had only 10 locomotives. None of them were preserved. When the railway stopped running, 34 carriages were in use. Only the thirdclass-carriage located at Birkirkara survived. JAMES DEBONO THE Birkirkara local council has applied to turn an existing childcare centre located in the Gnien l-Istazzjon into a transport museum. A third-class train wagon, which was vandalised some years ago and is still covered by green canvas, will be repositioned in front of the proposed museum. The wagon is Malta's last surviving 19th-century railway carriage. The museum will also include a panoramic lift. The proposal also includes the refurbishment of the Gnien l-Istazzjon and the development of a 2.5-metrehigh and five-metre-long kiosk and the placement of tables and chairs surrounding it. The children's play area will also be relocated to make way for the kiosk. An application by the previous jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt No plans to boycott Barilla – MGRM RAPHAEL VASSALLO MALTA'S main LGBT rights group will not formally endorse the boycott of Italian pasta brand Barilla declared by a coalition of Italy's gay rights movements in reaction to 'insensitive' remarks this week by the company's chairman, Guido Barilla. Hugely popular in Malta, Barilla products have for decades been marketed as a natural extension of 'traditional family values', using classic slogans such as Dove c' è Barilla, c' è casa (Home is where Barilla is) in conjunction with images depicting a married couple with small children. Asked by an interviewer whether the company would consider extend- Guido Barilla ing this image to also include samesex couples, Guido Barilla replied: "For us the concept of the sacred family remains one of the basic values of the company. I would not do it but not out of a lack of respect for homosexuals, who have the right to do what they want without bothering others… [But] I don't see things like they do, and I think the family that we speak to is a classic family." Asked what effect he thought his attitude would have on gay consumers of pasta, Barilla said: "Well, if they like our pasta and our message, they will eat it; if they don't like it and they don't like what we say, they will… eat another." The comment provoked outrage in Italy's gay community, with Aurelio Mancuso, chairman of Equality Italia, pronouncing Barilla's declaration a "provocation". "Accepting the invitation of Barilla's owner to not eat his pasta, we are launching a boycott campaign against all his products," he added. But the representatives of Malta's LGBT community will not be joining the initiative, preferring to leave its members to make up their own minds. Gabi Calleja, chairperson of the Malta Gay Rights Movement, explained that the organisation has to date never resorted to boycotting individual brands or companies. "We have no intention of declaring any formal boycott. Our members will see the arguments and decide for themselves." Speaking on a personal level, Calleja added that comments like Barilla's were unhelpful. "We regret statements like that. They represent a kind of attitude that is known to have negative repercussions." Her views are shared by the speaker of Italy's lower House of Representatives, Laura Boldrini, who kick-started the whole controversy by calling for a review of TV advertising regulations to safeguard the image of women. "There are some adverts… which, when I see them, I think, 'But would this advert be broadcast in other countries? In the United Kingdom would this advert be broadcast? And the answer is certainly not'." Boldrini said Tuesday. "An advert in which the children and father are all sitting down and the mother is serving at the table cannot be accepted as normal." Jury still out on police reluctance to press charges against Dalli Dalli indicated as bribe's 'author' in charges against Silvio Zammit – so why did police not press charges against Dalli before change in government? MATTHEW VELLA THE charges that police pressed against the man accused of soliciting a multimillion bribe from the European smokeless tobacco lobby had specifically stated that former European Commissioner John Dalli had "requested, received or accepted" a bribe – a factor that raises questions over court testimony that John Rizzo gave this week in the compilation of evidence against Silvio Zammit. Former commissioner of police John Rizzo told a court this week he had the go-ahead from Attorney General Peter Grech to press charges against John Dalli over the alleged bribery. But the police failed to press charges against Dalli since first arraigning Zammit on 11 December 2012, with Rizzo claiming in court that the former commissioner had been holed up in Brussels seeking medical treatment during the ensuing months, when Malta was in a prolonged, three-month electoral campaign. While Zammit's charge sheet specifically refers to Dalli as the recipient of an alleged bribe, allegedly in return for lifting an EU ban on the sale of smokeless tobacco, the jury is still out as to why Rizzo never proceeded to press charges, given his clear mandate from the Attorney General. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil on Friday latched onto Rizzo's court testimony to claim that Dalli had availed himself of the change in government of 10 March 2013 to return to Malta, hinting that Rizzo's successor planned to cancel the charges against Dalli under political influence from the new Labour government. In a reply yesterday, Dalli accused Busuttil of 'falsity' over suggestions that he had used his medical treatment in Brussels as a delaying tactic to evade arraignment. "I returned on 6 April, when Rizzo was still commissioner. He had every opportunity to take the steps he felt he should take," Dalli said in comments to MaltaToday. "What's uncertain is whether Busuttil's false statement is down to some superficiality or malice," Dalli said of the new Nationalist Party leader. "When my medical certificate expired, my lawyer informed the police I would be back in Malta within a few days. I did not come in stealth. When the new commissioner sent for me on 21 May 2013 to interrogate me, Inspector Angelo Gafà was also present during the whole interview. This fact again contradicts what Busuttil said." Busuttil has called for the resignation of Commissioner of Police Peter Paul Zammit, saying that his recent public statements that there was no case against Dalli contradicted the conclusions of Rizzo and those of the Attorney General, Peter Grech. The Attorney General has so far not made his position public as to whether he had agreed that there was enough evidence to charge John Dalli. When cross-examined by Zammit's defence counsel, Rizzo himself did not explain in court why he did not press charges against Gayle Kimberley – a Maltese lawyer engaged by snus producers Swedish Match to broker Former commissioner of police John Rizzo a meeting with John Dalli. The EU's anti-fraud unit, OLAF, suggested that Kimberley had been the accomplice in the bribery attempt. On his part, Rizzo told the court he agreed with OLAF's conclusion that, based on the circumstantial evidence of telephone call logs between Dalli and Zammit at the same time that Zammit was soliciting the bribe from ESTOC, there was evidence to charge Dalli. Kimberley has already denied in court having suggested to Silvio Zammit to solicit a €60 million bribe from Swedish Match, which was the original request made to the company before Zammit tried to make a similar offer to ESTOC. Emails published by MaltaToday show that even after Kimberley was told by Swedish Match to sever contact with Zammit, her husband Matthew emailed a lobbying proposal to Zammit that was to be sent to ESTOC. It was this email that set the ball rolling for Zammit's proposal to ESTOC Secretary-General Inge Delfosse for a €10 million price to lift the ban on snus. While Silvio Zammit was arraigned in court the day after the Nationalist government lost a budgetary vote that sent the country to early elections in December 2012, Gafà testified during the compilation of evidence that Dalli was expected to be charged. No crime was ever specified, and although Dalli's health condition was indicated as the reason he was not charged, the prosecution also failed to press charges in the subsequent four months. The three-month election campaign was also unfolding at the time. In court this week, Rizzo denied having been put under pressure by members of the Nationalist government to issue charges against Silvio Zammit or John Dalli. But the former commissioner mentioned "pressure from MPs and the media" on the police to issue charges on the so-called Dalligate affair. "This issue needs explaining," Dalli said. "As far as I know, parliament never discussed the case, having not met between 15 December 2012 and 6 April 2013. How was parliament exerting pressure on Rizzo? Does this sworn evidence establish political pressure on the police, as was reported in the local media as far back as 16 December 2012?"