Europol director Rob Wainwright never brought up any “issues” concerning cooperation with the Maltese authorities over Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia has insisted.
Reacting to a letter by the EU law enforcement agency’s outgoing director, which said that cooperation with the Maltese authorities was not optimal, Dr Farrugia insisted that despite meeting Mr Wainwright on several occasions, no such concerns had ever been flagged.
“It is not the first time that I have met the director of Europol and in each and every meeting I thanked him for the support by Europol and in no circumstances did any issues come up,” the minister said.
On Friday, the letter sent by the director to MEP Ana Gomes was published by the Times of Malta after being obtained by the Daphne Project, a consortium of 18 media houses pursuing the stories that were being worked on by slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
In his letter, Mr Wainwright referred to the investigation into the murder of Ms Caruana Galizia as “highly complex”, adding that it involved a number of EU Member States and that “new concerns” had prompted further investigation. He also said there was “some room for improvement” regarding cooperation with the Maltese authorities.
Pressed on whether this was the first time that the director had flagged cooperation issues, the minister went on to say that he had discussed the matter with Police Commissioner Laurence Cutajar who also confirmed that Europol had not made any such concerns known to the force.
“All I can say is that Europol was invited to come over and assist the Malta police in their investigation, to go through the data that we had and to help the police. I am sure that the director would have drawn my attention,” the minister insisted when asked whether he believed, then, that the concerns came up out of nowhere.
Meanwhile, in a statement yesterday afternoon, the police claimed after seeking a clarification the agency had confirmed to the force that the remark by Europol’s outgoing chief was directed at other countries, not Malta.
The police had earlier expressed surprise at Mr Wainwright’s comments, saying that at no point had the force been informed of such concerns.
Asked for a clarification about the comment and to confirm the police force’s claims that the concerns were not about Malta, a Europol spokesman said the agency had nothing further to add to the statements in the letter.