Delia 'seriously threatened' by ambassador nominee's partner, Speaker rules

The Speaker has ruled that a message sent to Adrian Delia last week clearly contained "serious threats" that attempted to undermine his work as a member of parliament.

In a ruling delivered on Tuesday, Speaker Anġlu Farrugia said the message constituted a breach of privilege - meaning the case will be sent to the privileges committee for further scrutiny unless the person who sent the message "fully withdraws" the threats.

Delia asked the Speaker to investigate the case on Monday.

He told parliament that the partner of a nominee for an ambassadorial post sent him a threatening message after he voted against her nomination.

It is understood he was referring to Anthony DeBono, the partner of Roseanne Camilleri, who was last week confirmed by the public appointments committee as the non-resident ambassador in Liechtenstein.

Delia said that after the grilling, he received a message from the partner, "of one of the nominees", titled, "Even the devil can cite scripture", and which contained threats.

He said this was a breach of parliamentary privilege since it was an attempt to stop him from doing his job. He requested an investigation by the Speaker, who accepted while asking for the correspondence to be sent to him.

What the message said

As he delivered the ruling on Tuesday, Farrugia read out the heavily redacted WhatsApp message, leaving out the names of several people who were mentioned. 

The sender appeared to threaten Delia with calling several people the MP had previously crossed paths with and attempting to sour their relationship. 

Finally, he said he would speak to someone's "teams to make it easier for [Delia] to have an excuse to not contest the next election". 

Farrugia said the message clearly contained threats and found the sender guilty prima facie of breach of privilege.

"The message clearly contains serious threats in Delia's regard and intimidation that influenced him, or could have influenced him in his duties as an MP," Farrugia ruled.

He said he was willing to reconsider the ruling if the person who sent the message fully and unequivocally withdrew the message.

Delia thanked the speaker for the ruling.

The breach of privilege in Maltese law ensures that parliament and MPs can perform their duties without outside interference or intimidation.

Several actions are legally defined as a breach of privilege, including physical assault, interference, or sending threatening letters to an MP regarding their conduct in parliament and any insult or disrespect shown to the speaker or an MP, even if the MP is not present at the time.

Why had Delia challenged the appointment?

During a parliamentary grilling last week, Delia challenged Camilleri over direct orders issued for works at the Birkirkara and Qormi health centres between 2022 and 2023.

Times of Malta revealed the details last year, showing how refurbishment works that were meant to cost €56,000 at the Qormi health centre ended up costing €1 million, and similar works at the Birkirkara health centre that were initially slated to cost €264,000 ended up costing almost half a million euro.

An internal investigation found the projects were riddled with overcharging, missing paperwork, double payments, hidden costs and unapproved work.

This all happened under her watch as CEO of Primary Health Care.

The probe uncovered shockingly bad planning, financial mismanagement and breaches of public procurement regulations.

While they did not find evidence of corruption or collusion, the investigators concluded that the failures were “at best gross negligence and at worst grave misconduct”, and that both the Camilleri and financial controller at the time must shoulder responsibility.

Camilleri has always maintained she did no wrongdoing.