Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/509499
Newspaper post Sex therapist Maria Ali 'Boys will not always be boys' 14-15 YES!!! Tell Balzan Police seek proof Debono was aware of works-for-votes STORY ON PAGE 9 • NEW EU PLAN TO RESETTLE 20,000 REFUGEES YOUR FIRST READ AND FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT maltatoday Traffickers advertise Italy 'trip' on Facebook Simon Busuttil asked Giovanna Debono to step down as MP, but the combative former Gozo minister refused MORE CHANGE FOR THE PN SIMON BUSUTTIL FAVOURS OUTSIDER, NOT MP FOR CRUCIAL PARTY ROLE PAGE 4 SUNDAY • 10 MAY 2015 • ISSUE 809 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY JURGEN BALZAN AND MATTHEW VELLA DESPITE the EU's hard talk on targeting human traffickers in Libya and striking boats used to carry asylum seekers to Europe, people smugglers have not relented in their drive to entice migrants into embarking on trips to Italy, which often end in death for many. MaltaToday is in pos- session of an advert posted online by a man who identified himself as Omar Zuwari, who prob- ably hails from Syria. In his online advert posted in late April, Zu- wari wrote that a trip to Italy from Zuwara – a port city in northwestern Libya – would cost asylum seekers $1,000 (€890), but children travel for free. The once discreet smug- glers along the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean are openly publicising their contact details, prices and schedules on Twitter and Facebook to attract migrants. Moreover, the euphe- mistic language and im- agery used is more akin to travel agencies and tour- ism brochures. Zuwari's advert pro- motes a "journey from Zuwara in a 26 metre boat with a Tunisian Captain with a Thuraya mobile (satellite phone)," add- ing that the trip will take eight hours but "it will take another two hours to enter Italian territorial water and for the Italian boats to arrive". The advert – entitled 'Trip to Italy; beginning of the week' – was posted just days after up to 900 asylum seekers died at sea after their captain ac- cidentally crashed their boat against a merchant rescue ship. SAVIOUR BALZAN POLICE investigators are sifting through evidence that can prove that former Nationalist minister for Gozo Giovanna Debono was aware that her husband Anthony, a civil servant inside the Gozo ministry, was carrying out private works on the ministerial budget, for constituents. Key to the investigation will be a decision by the Gozitan courts on whether or not to freeze An- thony Debono's assets, under money laundering procedures in the law. The request to freeze his assets was objected to by defence counsel Joe Giglio, during Debono's ar- raignment in the court of Magistrate Joanne Vella Cuschieri. Debono, 59, was charged with the misappropria- tion of public funds and the abuse of his office, fraud, falsification of documents, committing crimes he was duty bound to prevent, and trying to prevent others from giving information or evi- dence to authorities. The police are interested in whether any suspi- cious transactions were made by Anthony Debo- no, and have not ruled out the possibility of alleged kickbacks from the works-for-votes ruse. CONTINUES PG 3 WHIP IT GOOD! 'We spent 25 years in power. But the people are seeing through Labour already after 25 months.' DAVID AGIUS PGS 14-15 €1.40 Does your child have coeliac disease? How one family copes PAGE 16 ANOTHER LAND GRAB? ZONQOR'S CAMPUS DISSECTED PAGES 6-8 LAND GRAB? The advert posted by Omar Zuwari says the trip to Italy costs $1,000