In deciding to prosecute former European commissioner John Dalli a few years ago, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà, then an inspector, was deemed by one of his predecessors, Peter Paul Zammit, as having relied on his own morals and subjective evaluation. Evidence is not subjective, Zammit remarked, it is purely objective. Zammit felt there was not enough of it at that stage to ensure a conviction.
However, so convinced was Gafà that the police had a solid case that the decision to arraign Dalli was made in 2021, just over a year after he was appointed police chief.
Three voluminous and detailed reports by the auditor general, a clear-cut court judgment declaring fraud and fresh revelations by the media about the scandal-ridden public hospitals concession should surely be enough for Gafà to prosecute in this case too.
The police have been investigating the matter for four or five years now. Even if they opted to ignore the media reports all along – as had been done with regard to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blogs on this very matter – the contents of the auditor general’s reports and the court judgment should provide the police with enough ammunition.
The matter has now reached a stage where further delay risks transmitting a message of incompetence at best, more likely one of unwillingness or even of hope that things will be lost in time, and of a cover-up at worst. One hopes that if and when the decision to prosecute is made, it is because previously unavailable incontrovertible evidence has been procured and the case has become watertight. No other reason for delay would suffice.
The comments made by the judges who conducted the public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s murder still ring in our ears: “The institutions’ lethargic inaction, not only in order not to investigate serious allegations of violation of the law, even criminal law, but also in order not to investigate other allegations of bad and illicit public administration is inexplicable and censurable. It cannot be explained as simple incompetence or indifference.”
Muscat realises the noose is tightening inexorably. In a desperate attempt to shore up his crumbling defences, he has tried to discredit the magistrate conducting the inquiry into the controversial concession
Failing to take the case further would only benefit those with a finger in the pie and those who allowed it to happen or even facilitated it.
The responsibility of some of the suspects is not solely of a criminal nature however. Political responsibility must also be shouldered. All leads in this tangled web somehow go back to Joseph Muscat, whether as head of government, facilitator or consultant. Payments made to him almost immediately after his resignation are suspicious at best. In declaring he always got paid for the work he did, Muscat seems to ignore that his is a clear case of revolving doors.
He realises the noose is tightening inexorably. In a desperate attempt to shore up his crumbling defences, Muscat has tried to discredit the magistrate conducting the inquiry into the controversial concession. The best he could come up with was to demand that the hospitals inquiry be assigned to another magistrate.
Referring to media reports, which also covered payments he received after he resigned, he said “there are obvious leaks from the work being done by the magistrate”. One wonders how he can be sure of that unless he himself is privy to certain information.
As the investigation and the evidence produced by Times of Malta, OCCRP and The Shift showed last Wednesday, there are several other individuals who should be facing police scrutiny and even prosecution at this stage.
Failure to do that will only reinforce the perception that justice is not equal for all.