Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/977918
Newspaper post maltatoday today today SUNDAY • 6 MAY 2018 • ISSUE 965 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY YOUR FIRST READ AND CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT Fighting the fix JAMES DEBONO on what party leaders did not say on Workers' Day PAGES 8-9 €1.95 Elephants and bogeymen on May Day A business director named by The Daph- ne Project in connection to Azerbaijani oligarchs who hold Pilatus Bank accounts, has threatened to take legal action against MaltaToday in the UK unless it takes down an article on the companies he set up in Malta. MaltaToday listed 18 companies Robert Baker set up in Malta – nine of which used a Pilatus company-in-formation bank ac- count – after he was identified as one of the directors of a French company whose ultimate beneficial owners are Tale and Nijat Heydarov, sons of the all-powerful Azerbaijani minister for emergency situ- ations Kamaladdin Heydarov. All 18 companies were opened between July 2015 and December 2015 by Frendo Advisory, a corporate services firm head- ed by former Nationalist foreign minister Michael Frendo. Frendo is an agent for Malta's sale of passports together with his son Luke Frendo, an IIP agent in his own right, who acted as company secretary for the companies before resigning from them en masse in late April 2017. The legal threat came from British law firm Mishcon de Reya, the same London firm used by IIP concessionaires Henley & Partners in connection with reports post- ed by the late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. "Our client is entitled to an apology, an award of damages and his costs… our cli- ent's attitude to these remedies will be de- termined by your response to this letter," Baker's lawyers said, demanding the take- down of the article in question and 'in- structing' not to publish the legal threat. MaltaToday is publishing details of the letter. "British law firms have a reputation for muscling in on journalists and silencing critics with the threat of ruinous court ac- tion. The SLAPP threat has gone too far," MaltaToday executive editor Matthew Vella said. "SLAPPs are being used by financial elites and tax pirates to condition Maltese journalism. MaltaToday has in the past been threatened with UK court action by a Lebanese energy giant, a British biotech entrepreneur, and more recently a UK asset company with interests in football and shipping. KURT SANSONE ADRIAN Delia's trust rating is up, but despite being at its highest, the Opposition leader still trails Joseph Muscat by 21 points, a MaltaTo- day survey found. The trust barometer published today sees Delia at 27.2% and Muscat at 48.6%. Delia's rat- ing has gone up by seven points since the last survey in March, while Muscat's has dropped by four. The survey was carried out between the 23 and 27 April, in the second week of the Daphne Project revelations and before the Labour Par- ty's Workers' Day mass meeting. The results indicate that any impact from the revelations on the Labour Party and Muscat must have been minimal. When polling voting intentions, the survey found that support for the PL stood at 45.8%, down four points since March, and 32.1% for the Nationalist Party, up six points. The survey results suggest that the PN has started to attract back some of its lost sheep by taking Gozo from Labour and making sig- nificant inroads in its traditional hinterland in Malta. The PN appears to be showing the first signs of green shoots since Delia became leader. But it still has to be seen whether these will develop stronger roots over the months to come. The PL remains strongly ahead and recal- culating the results on the basis of those who declared their voting intentions, sees the party enjoying a lead of around 52,000 votes over the PN. company with interests in PAGE 3 Bloomin' jellies! If you're going to dip your toes for a swim, watch out for these mauve stingers... BACK PAGE MaltaToday threatened with legal action for publishing company structure whose directors were linked by Daphne Project to Azerbaijan minister's sons and Pilatus Bank Fighting the fix Football corruption buster Franz Tabone says match-fixing is big and growing but the problem is being fought PAGES 14-15 UK legal threat against MaltaToday over Azeri-Pilatus connection report PAGES 10-12 mt survey Green shoots for Delia but it's still not a contest