Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/807528
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 5 APRIL 2017 4 News Busuttil: Gozo drug inquiry a 'whitewash' PAUL COCKS PRIME minister Joseph Muscat was, without any doubt, covering for two of his ministers who in 2013 met at night at the Gozo Ministry with the father of a suspect implicated in a drug trafficking case, opposition leader Simon Busuttil said yesterday evening. MaltaToday revealed last month that following the meeting, a woman arrested by the police and who identified two men who supplied her the drugs, had changed her statement so that the men were no longer implicated. In an interview on Mhux Ghax Jimpur- tani on Net TV, Busuttil said he was sure the conclusions of the inquiry would be a "whitewash" in favour of the govern- ment, especially since the government had appointed a former Labour candidate to investigate claims against two Labour minister, instead of appointing an inde- pendent three-judge inquiry board. The conclusions of the inquiry will be presented to Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat tomorrow. Asked if the PN knew the identity of the ministers involved and what had hap- pened that night, he said that it did not take an expert to reach the right conclu- sion. "Who has access to the Gozo ministry: Simon Busuttil or the minister for Gozo? And which other minister or politician could have arrived at the ministry with a police escort? Who has a police escort? I imagine only the prime minister and the minister responsible for the police have an escort," he said. "So there is not much leeway here." Both Gozo minister Anton Refalo and former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia denied their involvement in the case. Busuttil said that, as a bare minimum, the prime minister should have already had the decency to say who the two poli- ticians involved were, especially since this case involved drugs and drug traf- ficking. This, he said was a classic case of Joseph Muscat choosing to defend drug traffick- ers and the politicians who covered for them, instead of defending every child, teen and even adults from the dangers of drug and those who trafficked them. "Every parent wants to be reassured that their children are being protected by the police, ministers and the govern- ment," Busuttil said. Because of such behaviour by the gov- ernment, people were starting to realise that the next general election would be an important one and that their decision on the day could change everything. But with the Labour government in place, and because of the way Joseph Muscat was leading the country, the op- position was not in a position to guaran- tee that only people entitled to vote in the upcoming general election would actu- ally do so, Busuttil acknowledged. He said the opposition could not allow the government to blatantly attempt to tamper with the electoral system. The PN was therefore closely follow- ing developments at Identity Malta, after news emerged that a number of people had been issued more than one identity card, and could therefore cast more than one vote in a general election. "We have a team dedicated to keeping a very close eye on what is happening, to check every detail, as we have done in the past in the case of the citizenship scheme," he said. "But as things stand, I cannot guarantee that only people entitle to vote will actu- ally do so." Busuttil said that he was worried that the government persisted in denying the allegations, despite all the evidence presented, and promised the opposition would continue to insist that the govern- ment ensure that no irregularities are al- lowed to happen. "The man on street wants to be sure that democracy is not being subjugated, that this country remain normal and de- cent," he said. "That is all people want, so we are warning the government to keep its hands off democracy." As to last week's news of the first budg- et surplus in 35 years, Busuttil insisted that the Labour government had not in- vested in any major project, but had at the same time increased its recurrent expenditure. "So while I welcome the surplus, I would have preferred if the government had invested, and invested heavily, in in- frastructure at all levels, while cutting back on waste expenditure. Busuttil said that despite the country's economic growth, a portion of society was not registering any change in the quality of life. "We have many people on less than €11,000 a year and pensioners who can- not make ends meet and who cannot af- ford medicine they need," he said. On Air Malta and its future, Busuttil said that the national airline was crucial for the country's future. "The PN is committed to finding a vi- able solution to ensure we revive Air Malta, and we are pleased to note that proposals we have made over a year ago now seem to have been taken up by the government," he said. Busuttil also referred to the recent uploading of a video showing a female postal work performing sexual acts and last Sunday's condemnation by the prime minister of the person who had uploaded the video, whom he referred to as a cow- ard. "I wonder why Joseph Muscat did not call this persons a "soldier of steel" like he had called his friend Cyrus Engerer who was convicted by the courts for the same thing and whom he went on to send to Brussels with a hefty salary," he said. Busuttil said the prime minister still thought people were stupid and gullible, but he would learn otherwise. PN suggests systematic tampering of electoral register YANNICK PACE THE deputy leader of the Nation- alist Party Beppe Fenech Adami has insisted that a significant number of people listed in the electoral register are in posses- sion of two ID card numbers, adding that this was a serious threat to the country's democrat- ic process. "This is a very serious case be- cause we are now touching on a fundamental democratic right. Every person has the right to vote and to vote only once," Fenech Adami said yesterday. The claims of people having more than one ID card numbers, and therefore affecting the num- ber of votes that person is eligible to have, were first made by Fenech Adami in March. Then the Malta Independent reported that an in- ternal report it had seen showed that out of a sample of 300 people on the ID card registry, 80 have been found to have more than one ID card, with five people – all foreign nationals – holding up to three ID cards under the same name but with three different ID numbers. Asked whether the PN be- lieved that this was being done intentionally and systematically, Fenech Adami said that denials by both the Prime Minister and justice minister Owen Bonnici raised serious questions. "The fact is that from a sample of 300, 80 were found. This is fact, then we also had a denial. When you have the denial of a fact, the plot thickens," Fenech Adami said. He said that following a number of reports appearing in the Malta Independent, it had now come to light that out of a sample of 300 names from the register, 80 were found to be in possession of more than one ID card number. "If an election were to be held tomorrow, these people would be able to vote twice," Fenech Adami said, adding that the matter was further complicated by the fact that those with a second ID card numbers had taken that of a an- other individual. Moreover, he stressed that veri- fying the full extent of the prob- lem was a very difficult exercise that would require manually checking photos associated with each name and ID number. Asked how the PN could verify that what was being said was true, Fenech Adami said that while po- litical parties did not have access to voter photos, it had verified and confirmed what was being said by the Malta Independent. The PN deputy leader accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of facilitating this through appoint- ment of people close to the La- bour Party such as Identity Malta chairperson Joe Vella Bonnici. Herman Schiavone, who also addressed the press conference, stressed that this was not the first suspicious case involving Identity Malta. He said that there were serious questions raised on the agency's involvement in the "Al- gerian visas scandal", as well as corruption related to Libyan resi- dence permits. Current ID card system better than previous one, government rebuts In a statement issued by the ministry of local government, the government rebutted the claims once more, insisting that there is "no crisis in the ID card system," denying that the sample of 300 ID cards was ever taken. "The ID card system currently in place is strong and better than the system that existed under the previous government," the state- ment said. The government added that on- ly Maltese citizens are allowed to vote in general elections and that foreigners are given residence documents – not ID cards. "For this reason, when Beppe Fenech Adeami quotes cases of foreigners that are not even in possession of an ID card, he is do- ing this with the clear intention of creating confusion and attack- ing the credibility of the agency [Identity Malta]." Beppe Fenech Adami (centre) said that denials by both the prime minister and justice minister raised serious questions