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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 31 DECEMBER 2014 2 15 Years Lino Cauchi INVESTIGATIONS carried out by MaltaToday into the Lino Cauchi murder revealed that nine days after the discovery of human body parts in the well at Buskett on 15 November, 1985, forensic experts had reached the conclusion that the victim was most probably a smoker. Not known to be a smoker, this discovery led to the possibility that the accountant had been mur- dered weeks or possibly months after he was abducted, and that he had smoked prior to his death. In 1985, when the corpse was still unidentified and it was unclear when the body had been put into the well, police investiga- tors had compiled a list of missing persons and zoomed in on two particular cases, that of a 23-year- old woman from Birgu and Lino Cauchi. A parish priest who had stopped visiting Cauchi's wife after the murder, was also to reveal he had been threatened after warning Cauchi's wife that her husband had been too close to the wrong kind of people. Lino Cauchi worked as an audi- tor for a number of shady indi- viduals, including Indri and Piju Camilleri – the latter being the right-hand man of the late Lorry Sant, the former Labour works minister, reviled by his political opponents. 3 March, 2002 George Grech MALTATODAY'S breaking story into allegations made against Com- missioner of Police George Grech are taken up by Super One radio and TV. Allegations of sexual harassment point to George Grech, but silence continues to surround the magiste- rial inquiry into the matter. The case is however followed closely by the Prime Minister's Office even though Eddie Fenech Adami refrains from commenting on the issue. The husband of a former univer- sity student raised the allegations at the Office of the Prime Minister in January 2001. Magistrate Miriam Hayman was appointed to lead a magisterial inquiry into the allega- tions. The person who allegedly suffered the harassment was Polish national Isabelle Azzopardi, who had been studying probation services at university. When contacted, Grech denied the allegations and insisted he was in- nocent. When asked whether it was appropriate for him to resign his post pending the outcome of the inquiry, Grech said it was not an option. 19 August, 2001 First editorial MALTATODAY is Malta's first weekend newspaper. It combines attractive content with a lively de- sign, offering readers a highly in- formative guide, aptly named This Week. Aiming to reach the highest standards and to provide the best content, MaltaToday has invested heavily in human resources and can boast of experienced edito- rial staff supported by a creative design team. Unfortunately over the past few years, several printed media were launched but failed to stand on their own two feet. Here at Malta- Today, we are not directly compet- ing with any print medium. Rather, we are offering something new. We have sought to come to terms with our market and move along with it. We also intend to grow with our project. Readers appear fed up with being inf licted with press statements, a constant dose of party politics and spin doctoring. They are still interested in reading good news stories, but they want them to be well presented, articulately written and attractively illustrated. A few months ago, a gathering of publishing magnates argued that 'the newspaper' was here to stay despite the impact of the TV and internet, but admitted it would have to change by targeting new topics and readers. 19 November, 1999 1999 2001 2002 Maltese Freemasons JOE Zahra, a former police of- ficer, bodyguard for Lorry Sant, and sometime collaborator for TV company Where's Everybody, was jailed for fabricating a report that claimed a fictitious relationship between a government minister and the director of contracts, to cash in on a government tender for the supply of medical equipment to Mater Dei Hospital. Zahra made the headlines in 2002 when he used his inf luence as a freemason to film meetings of the then secretive organisation for TV programme Bondiplus, with whom he worked. "What Joe Zahra did has never been done before in any of the other lodges abroad. We trusted him, but we did not know his background," Maltese freemasons said of their former 'brother'. As a private investigator, Zahra would however see himself impli- cated in the false report he com- piled for Dutch firm Simed, when he claimed that minister John Dalli's brother and the daughter of the government's director of con- tracts had met in Italy to discuss a government tender that later went in favour of Italian firm Inso. 10 November, 2002 Joe Cilia MALTATODAY'S investigations into former Labour MP and junior minis- ter Joe Cilia and his shady deals broke new ground as reports started emerg- ing of his misdemeanours during his years as Parliamentary Secretary for Youth and Sports between 1996- 1998. MaltaToday had revealed Dr Cilia's implication in a case of alleged sexual harassment, and how the former Par- liamentary Secretary issued tenders to individuals in return for 50 per cent of the profit. Cilia's business partner had been questioned by police over an alleged case of sexual harassment, after being spotted in a rental car. But it turned out that the rental car had been in the possession of Cilia at the time. Cilia would also use the companies he set up with his former partner to cash in on the tenders issued by his secretariat. There was never any official re- sponse from the Malta Labour Party, with Labour leader Alfred Sant lan- guidly saying he had "no reactions" to the allegations brought against Cilia. Cilia was later to refuse to com- municate with this newspaper. He was also later not to run for office in the 2003 elections, a year after the reports. 29 December, 2002