Updated 5.50pm with Transport Malta statement

Former PN MP Jason Azzopardi has filed an urgent request for another magisterial inquiry into an alleged criminal racket spanning the Gozo Ministry and Transport Malta, featuring Minister Clint Camilleri and his wife. 

Azzopardi claims that government jobs and/or greatly sought-after mooring spots at the Mġarr harbour are being handed out fraudulently, and has asked the court to seize electronic devices to preserve evidence they contain before it is irretrievably lost. 

In a brief statement, Transport Malta said it would "cooperate fully" with any inquiry should a court order one. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela reacted furiously to Azzopardi's allegations, saying the former MP was abusing the system of magisterial inquiries and vowing to reform it. 

A resident, of Qala, Toni Caruana, nicknamed Żbibu, allegedly features at the heart of the racket.

In his court application, Azzopardi claims Caruana regularly met third parties in the village square or local band club, promising them jobs in the public sector or the mooring spaces down at the Gozo harbour, against monetary kickbacks or other gifts. 

Mooring spots were secured even to persons who were not fishermen, he claims. Other people on the waiting list for the highly demanded spots, were assisted by jumping the queue on the waiting list, he further alleges.

According to the claims, Caruana would then pass on the relative requests and information to his son, Christoph, until recently serving as the head of Customer Care at the Gozo Ministry and a member of Minister Clint Camilleri’s private secretariat. 

This public officer would contact fellow public officer, Marcel Meilaq, at Gozo’s Transport Malta office, Azzopardi alleges. 

Meilaq also hails from Qala and was likewise “very close” to the minister, said Azzopardi. 

He said Meilaq was the “essential link” which enabled this "racket" to reach its “corrupt end”.

Azzopardi: Minister knew of all this

And all along Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri was aware of the goings-on and was thus an accomplice, claimed Azzopardi, stressing however, that he did not have any evidence that the Minister derived any monetary benefits out of the criminal activity. 

He did however get political mileage by securing electoral votes. 

Father and son Caruana’s actions took place “with the blessing and approval” of the Minister, Azzopardi said.

In a brief statement on Facebook on Sunday afternoon, Camilleri said he "categorically" denied the allegations. 

Camilleri's wife accused of involvement in criminal racket

Azzopardi also said the minister’s wife, lawyer Deborah Camilleri, was breaking the law. 

Although she was a full-time manager at Transport Malta in Gozo, Camilleri regularly exercised her private legal profession before the Gozo courts, often attending morning sittings when she should be at her TM office.

That meant that on a prima facie level, Camilleri was liable to face prosecution for money laundering. 

As a Transport Malta official, Camilleri was allegedly aware of the racket, said Azzopardi.

Azzopardi has asked a magistrate to investigate the suspected persons for suspected criminal organization, trading in influence, false declarations, fraud and forgery, money laundering and bribery of public officials. 

He also asked the court to investigate the minister’s wife for embezzlement and misappropriation, with her husband as an accomplice. 

Azzopardi presented court documents proving that at least on 11 different occasions, Camilleri was assisting private clients before the Gozo court during office hours at Transport Malta. 

Court minutes attached to his application showed that Camilleri appeared before two different magistrates on the same day and even before the same magistrate in two separate cases on the same day. 

Lawyer Jason Azzopardi signed the sworn application. 

Robert Abela to Azzopardi: Stop lying and abusing the law

In a post on his Facebook page, Prime Minister Robert Abela said Azzopardi was abusing the existing system of magisterial inquiries to "drag people through the Calvary of judicial proceedings for nothing". 

Clint Camilleri's wife, he said, only worked on private cases outside of office hours or while on leave, with the permission of her superiors. 

"The extremist faction of the PN, through Jason Azzopardi, wants to throw an innocent mother-of-two in jail," Abela said, adding that Labour would be taking a harder line against such claims in the future. 

"Since 2013 the Labour Party reasoned it would allow these sorts of cruel and baseless attacks without pushing back against them. It was a mistake. The line has now been completely crossed," the prime minister wrote. 

He said Azzopardi was abusing of the system of magisterial inquiries and that he has asked the Justice Minister, Jonathan Attard, to expedite a planned reform of the system "so that this sort of abuse is cut out once and for all".