Natalie Mottram, a corrupt police employee, illegally accessed sensitive information and tipped off a criminal friend about a secret investigation into his crimes. She was swiftly arrested by the UK National Crime Agency in June 2020 and was jailed for almost four years.
That same month, the Maltese courts ordered Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà “to formally investigate former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar”.
Cutajar publicly admitted to twice meeting a close confidante of Melvin Theuma, the middleman in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination, without informing the investigating team. Cutajar allegedly leaked sensitive information to Theuma who knew beforehand the police were coming for him.
Three years later, Gafà has still not investigated Cutajar.
Gafà is all talk and no action. He’s now bragging he’s not afraid of anybody. He boasted he would have no problem arresting disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat, as he quietly wet his pants behind his desk. “I repeat we aren’t influenced by any names or politicians. The police have always taken action responsibly, based on evidence, at least since I’ve been in charge.”
That’s a big fat lie. Gafà didn’t even investigate when the court ordered him. He defied the magistrate’s order and let his predecessor off the hook. Gafà didn’t have the guts to arrest Cutajar. But he brags he would arrest Muscat.
Gafà is accumulating quite a bulky portfolio of high-profile suspects he handles with kid gloves – Cutajar, Silvio Valletta, Ian Abdilla, Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, Chris Cardona, Anton Refalo, Karl Cini, Brian Tonna, Ram Tumuluri, Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, Chen Cheng, Ram Tumuluri, Turab Musayev, Silvio Grixti, Ian Borg, Muscat.
Gafà brought all sorts of excuses to avoid investigating Cutajar. “I believe that this case has to be led by the magistrate,” he announced. “It’s not because I have any doubt in the police but it’s important to have oversight from outside the force on cases dealing with police force members.”
Three years later, Cutajar remains a free man.
“On my watch the police force will not be weak on corruption issues, particularly when it comes to major political figures,” Gafà bluffed in 2020. “I will give a 100 per cent guarantee that I’ll investigate whoever, regardless of their position”.
How hollow those boasts now sound.
Gafà has had three years – yet, he hasn’t got a single scalp to show for it. Not one conviction. In most cases, he hasn’t even bothered investigating. That’s certainly the case with Cutajar. The evidence is there. Cutajar was dumb enough to provide it himself, publicly.
Cutajar was not part of the Caruana Galizia investigative team. Yet, he admitted taking it upon himself to meet Edwin Brincat, il-Ġojja, a close associate and adoptive father to middleman Theuma.
Cutajar didn’t even bother to inform the investigating team of his secret meetings.
Cutajar claimed he was trying to secure Theuma’s recordings of Yorgen Fenech.
When the investigating team found out, they warned him not to do it again. But Cutajar met il-Ġojja again, in secret, immediately after the investigating team decided to arrest Theuma. So, when the police came for Theuma, he was expecting them.
Angelo Gafà is accumulating quite a bulky portfolio of high-profile suspects he handles with kid gloves- Kevin Cassar
Cutajar was no meddling Inspector Clouseau. He was the police commissioner secretly meeting a close confidante of the middleman in the assassination of a journalist, behind the back of his own investigative team.
With great pomp, Robert Abela announced Cutajar’s resignation on January 17, 2020, just days after he became prime minister. But what Abela kept secret was that he had rewarded Cutajar with a lucrative €31,000 consultancy post with the home affairs ministry.
Cutajar was given that post on the very day of his resignation. Labour ensured that Cutajar didn’t even miss a single day’s salary.
His new post was far more lucrative than his full-time commissioner post. For a 20-hour week, Cutajar not only got a €31,000 salary but also a fully paid car.
Cutajar declared he had not sought the consultancy post – Labour gifted it to him. No wonder Cutajar shamelessly declared that the name of former chief of staff, Schembri never came up in the Caruana Galizia murder investigation.
Schembri had been in contact with Fenech on the night of his attempted escape on his yacht. Adrian Vella, a medical doctor, testified that he collected a letter from Schembri to pass on to Fenech, instructing him to pin the blame of the murder on Cardona.
Schembri allegedly set up Theuma’s phantom job.
Cutajar also stated he had full confidence in Valletta, his deputy commissioner.
Valletta had also allegedly leaked sensitive information to Fenech with whom he had a close friendship. Fenech paid for Valletta to travel with him to Kiev to watch the Champions League final and to Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea playing. He dined regularly with Fenech. They were so close that Fenech’s children called him Uncle Silvio. Yet, Valletta never bothered informing his colleagues of his friendship with Fenech.
Valletta denied leaking information. But he also denied calling Abdilla to cancel Fenech’s interrogation about 17-Black. “Ian Abdilla told us twice it was you who informed him,” Madam Justice Abigail Lofaro challenged Valletta at the Caruana Galizia inquiry, “someone is lying and it is either you or him.” That’s easy to deduce.
Valletta also testified he didn’t know Pilatus owner, Hasheminejad, had left the Pilatus offices with a suitcase, an event caught on film and broadcast widely. “I did not know he ran out with a bag. No one told me he left with a bag.”
But Valletta admitted under oath that the police force was simply an arm of OPM. “He was the chief of staff of the prime minister. I had to answer him and give him the information he asked of me,” Valletta confessed, referring to Schembri.
Gafà has all the evidence he could possibly want. Yet, he chooses to defy the court and let Cutajar and Valletta off the hook.
But it’s not them he’s protecting. They are dispensable. In fact, they’ve already been discarded.
Gafà is really protecting those who would be harmed most by what Valletta and Cutajar might reveal if he puts them in the dock: Schembri, Muscat and Abela.
Cutajar may have committed crimes of commission. Gafà is most likely committing crimes of omission. They’re crimes too. And, someday, justice will be done.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.