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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 4 DECEMBER 2016 26 Letters Commissioner of Police John Rizzo has ad- mitted calling former Labour party presi- dent Manuel Cuschieri to ask him why he was intent on proceeding with his defence from charges of making anonymous phone calls, after the victim testified she did not want to press charges against Cuschieri. Cuschieri was arraigned in court on 16 November after police investigated a com- plaint that a woman had been continuously harassed by numerous anonymous calls both day and night on her mobile phone. Cuschieri has vehemently denied the charges, and the woman has since expressed her wish to drop the charges. But Cuschieri's lawyers are insisting the case should continue to prove their client's innocence, and are now calling for experts from mobile phone operators Go Mobile and Vodafone to give evidence as to how confidential information could have been traced back to Cuschieri. Cuschieri has also told MaltaToday that once the case is concluded, he will divulge exactly what happened, including the names of all those responsible for the embarrassing ordeal. In an unusual phone call from a police commissioner to person facing charges by the police, Cuschieri was asked by a "con- cerned" John Rizzo, sometime after 9.45am after leaving the courtroom, why he had chosen to continue his defence, after the complainint withdrew her wish to testify against him. John Rizzo has told MaltaToday the phone call was made in response to a meet- ing held at the police HQ and "several calls made by Mr Cuschieri prior to the hearing of the case." According to Rizzo, Cuschieri "nearly up to the eve of the hearing scheduled for 16 November... constantly insisted with the Commissioner of Police personally to drop charges against him" after the complain- ant informed the police she did not wish to testify against him. … Rizzo even said that he "persistently pointed out" to Cuschieri, who asked for the proceedings to be dropped, that the charges could not be withdrawn because they had already been filed in court and that such offences "are prosecuted ex of- ficio". An ex officio case means that a private complaint is not required for prosecution to take place, which means the withdrawal of the complaint is irrelevant and can only have a bearing on the punishment if the accused is found guilty. Home Affairs and Justice Minister Tonio Borg has told MaltaToday he has been "assured by the police that at no moment in time did the Commissioner tell Mr Cuschieri that the Police wanted to drop charges; on the contrary since this was an "ex officio" case, the Police had a duty to prosecute, in spite of Mr Cuschieri's repeated pleas to the contrary." On 16 November, the police produced evidence collected during the investigation, and told the court that despite the victim's declaration to withdraw the charges, the police still had to proceed with the case as the nature of the charges were "ex officio". The case is currently still in the prosecu- tion stage. Rizzo has stated that during the proceedings the police never withdrew or expressed any intention to withdraw the charges against Cuschieri. Cuschieri "hurt" Manuel Cuschieri has told MaltaToday he felt it was imprudent to comment on the pending court case. "However I am reserving the right, that once the case is concluded, I will be saying exactly what happened in detail including the names of all those responsible. I understand that in the present circumstances there's some- body trying to save face with the public by making a show out of me." But the case has already cost the former Labour party president dearly, after he was asked by leader Alfred Sant to suspend himself from the party. Cuschieri's friends have described Sant's move as setting an example for deputy leader Michael Falzon, whose aide Nathalie Attard was alleged to have leaked news of a confidential meeting between Labour MPs and building contrac- tors to the Nationalist Party media. Rizzo admits calling Cuschieri on anonymous call charges 3 December 2006 Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. Walking a shameful route I invite the Parliamentary Secre- tary for Local Councils and the mayor and deputy mayor of St Paul's Bay Local Council to take a walk along this route: from where Triq il-Pijunieri ends on the side of Bay Square, turning on the right towards the Church, and then to proceed along Triq it-Turisti up to the end of it near Qawra Palace Hotel. Through this letter, they no longer have an excuse that they are not aware of the pitiful state of the road. Do they intend to have it repaired in eight months' time, when again it will be the peak of the tourist season? If I were in authority like they are, I would be ashamed of myself to see our esteemed visitors mak- ing fun of us for tolerating such negligence. If these honourable representa- tives of the people do take my invitation to walk along the route I mentioned, they will arrive near the Qawra police station. There, they will see the public garden in front of the Dolmen Hotel encircled behind a hideous boundary wall. This enclosure is a symbol that it is nobody's business as to what is happen- ing behind it. Here we have a hotel originating in the sixties, when at the time it was a pleasant mix of hotel rooms and a much larger area of open space. Today it is a massive built-up unit with hundreds of beds and not even any planned parking facilities. The owners expect the taxpaying public to make available to them more land than they had already encroached; their beach is a glar- ing example. Is the boundary wall a symbol that the small remaining public garden is to disappear as well? Can the authorities please en- lighten us? I intentionally grouped together the Parliamentary Secretary who represents the central government in office, which is Labour, with the mayor and the deputy mayor, from the opposite political camp, who were elected under the Nationalist Party f lag to be directly responsible for the local government in Qawra. Incidentally, the deputy mayor runs radio programmes to pro- mote himself as a candidate for the next general elections. One method he uses is the Donald Trump tactic: demeaning indi- viduals from the other political camp to gain political mileage among diehard party supporters. In my view as a f loating voter, he stands a better chance of being elected if he gives more to us, common people, in his role as the deputy mayor of the Local Coun- cil. He disappoints big time. Writing this piece as a common citizen, my calculation is that neither one nor the other of our grand political parties has much to be proud of when it comes to meeting our aspirations for small mercies. David Borg St Paul's Bay Faith is what cynics need Mr. J. Guillaumier's failings are most consistently, miserably and vulnerably exposed and apparent when he quotes the likes of Robert G. Ingersoll and Omar Khayyam. Now tell me, who are these men compared to the stature and credibility of St Paul, let alone Christ? Let's consider only St Paul. "Now if Christ is preached as risen from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead neither has Christ risen and if Christ has not risen, vain then is our preach- ing, vain too is your faith." A loud and clear message and doctrine. This fact of Christ's Resur- rection has been established (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20). The apostles bore wit- ness to it constantly; in fact, it formed the basis of their entire preaching. (e.g. Acts 2: 24-32, 2 Corinthians 5: 15, 2 Timothy 2: 8). Not only is it the pledge, pattern and example of our own resurrection but Christ's death is never divorced, in Christian thought, from the triumph of the Resurrection. Unsurpassed is the title of my letter on the same day in anoth- er paper "Faith is still indis- pensable" which I accidentally stuck completely unaware of Mr Guillaumier's letter "Celes- tial promissory notes". Faith is the adherence of the intellect, under the inf luence of grace, to a revealed truth beyond the limits of man's intellect. This substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that are not seen (Hebrew 11:1) is too dif- ficult for Mr. Guillaumier to comprehend what may, perhaps be regarded by Mr. Guillaumier as f lash points of fanaticism where a fool- ish faith can go astray. It is only that "indispensable" faith which can completely expel the fear of the unpredictable, the spontaneous, the supernatural, which all genuine charismatic phenomena represent. The above line of thought is only a corollary appendix to Christ's teachings and proph- ecy on the subject which is "indisputable". John Azzopardi Zabbar On the workers' front Once upon a time in America, the Longshoremen's Union was hijacked by the Mafia. The men would gather dockside around dawn, in their dozens, hoping to be picked for a day's work. The lucky chosen few would give a cut of their day's wages to the Mob. They were muscle-bound burly types, who thought nothing of pulverizing a golf-ball in the pit of their elbows. The men would stand in awe, frozen in terror at the mercy of the picker's whim for their daily bread. Nothing like Elia Kazan's On The Waterfront captured the mood and the atmosphere of the 1950s New York docks. I had for- gotten, long ago, this spellbinder of cinema art. Forgotten, until I stumbled on Malta's GWU Community Work Scheme. Joe Genovese Birkirkara