Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/926403
Opinion 23 maltatoday SUNDAY 14 JANUARY 2018 kept in a safe in Pilatus Bank. A photo of the original document has been passed onto the inquiring magistrate. As far as I can see, the other copy that was 'in the cloud' has stayed there ever since. As for the latter allegation, there has been no evidence at all. No bank records to show that the money had been deposited. It's like the cat after it jumped out of the window. You can't prove the crime was committed... but you can't prove it wasn't, either. Stepping into that scenario at the tail-end – as our neighbour did in the imaginary scenario, above – one could come away with all sorts of different perceptions and misinterpretations. It is obvious to me that the PANA committee has chosen the perception that Joseph Muscat is guilty as hell. Its chairman Werner Langen even said so, in no uncertain terms: ''We will insist that you [Muscat] don't get off scot-free..." But why stop there? There are other possibilities, you know. It could be argued... indeed, it has been argued... that the Egrant allegations were fabricated by Daphne Caruana Galizia herself – or by the whistleblower, who then deceived the journalist, etc - in order to topple Muscat's government, at a time when the Opposition party was at too low an ebb to win an election by legitimate means. That was implicit in Muscat's own reaction from the very beginning: he called it the 'biggest lie in Maltese political history'. And naturally, he didn't supply any proof, either. Why should he, when the allegation he was rebutting was itself unsupported by any evidence? Speaking for myself: I don't see why I should believe one version any more (or less) than the other. Both those scenarios seem equally plausible to me. It's not as though Malta is immune to such things either way: we have seen governments indulging in outrageous corruption before... and we have also seen political parties resorting to the most desperate measures imaginable to seize power (there is even a colloquialism for this in contemporary Maltese: 'Terinata', named after a famous case dating back to the 1920s. That's how far back our local history of similar political machinations goes...) In fact, without evidence either way, I fail to see how anyone can just summarily pass judgment on this case... or any other, for that matter. Yet that is what nearly everyone is currently doing, even as I write. From the European Parliament, all the way down to the most uninformed and unintelligible online commentator... everyone is just picking and choosing which version most suits the preferred political agenda, and calling it ' justice'. Sorry, but that is not how justice works. Michelle Muscat either is the UBO of Egrant, or she isn't. Money was either deposited into that account, or it wasn't. What you, me, the PANA committee, or anyone else under the sun thinks is entirely irrelevant. So enough of this mad scramble for condemnation or acquittal without proof. Justice without proof is not justice at all. And justice dictated only by political prejudice is... ugh. I don't even want to finish that sentence... Your last chance until 31 January 2018 at 12:30 www.centralbankmalta.org/maltese-lira These banknotes stopped being legal tender after 31 January 2008 when Malta adopted the euro. You are still in time to change Fifth Series Maltese Lira into euro until 31 January 2018 at 12:30. All notes are exchangeable at the Central Bank of Malta, Binja Ġlormu Cassar, St James's Counterguard, Valletta. For amounts in excess of Lm200, please call on (+356) 2550 3520/1 from 8:00 to 16:00 for assistance.