Joe Debono Grech participated in a scheme to defeat a Council of Europe report criticising Azerbaijan for horrendous human rights violations. The scheme was led by Italian MP Luca Volontè, later condemned to four years imprisonment for taking €2.39 million to mute Europe’s criticism of Azerbaijan. Debono Grech denied receiving any inducements.
The Freedom Files Analytical Centre issued a report entitled ‘European values bought and sold’ documenting Azerbaijan’s sophisticated system of buying Western politicians. Azerbaijan had laundered $3 billion doing so.
One whole chapter was about Malta. “Maltese MPs are known for their support of Azerbaijan in the Council of Europe, especially Joe Debono Grech,” it said. Dom Mintoff’s minister managed to get appointed co-rapporteur on human rights in Azerbaijan, beating a Norwegian MP with impeccable human rights credentials. Azerbaijan mobilised all its allies to elect Debono Grech.
The report claimed that “as early as January 2013, Debono Grech was suspected of receiving gifts while travelling to Azerbaijan”. Debono Grech visited Azerbaijan about 30 times. He repeatedly voted with the Azeris at the Council of Europe. He claimed “Azerbaijan is on the right track” while Baku imprisoned, tortured, blackmailed and murdered journalists and activists. Elmar Huseynov, a journalist critical of President Ilham Aliyev, was shot in the mouth, a gangland trademark of imposing silence.
While Aliyev was corrupt and repressive with his people, he treated foreign politicians like rock stars, providing five-star hotel stays, black caviar by the kilo and precious silk carpets. Despite his denials, Debono Grech finally admitted receiving “a silk carpet”.
Debono Grech wasn’t the worst Maltese politician exposed. That honour goes to Speaker Anġlu Farrugia. Farrugia visited Azerbaijan several times “observing” many of its elections and always spoke very positively about them. In October 2013, Farrugia observed Azerbaijan’s elections on behalf of the European Academy for Elections Observation (EAEO), a notorious organisation specialising in giving positive assessments of fraudulent elections in autocratic countries. Farrugia concluded the elections were “fair, democratic and transparent”. In that election, Aliyev won a fantastical 85 per cent of the vote.
The OSCE’s office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights found “intimidation, imprisonment of opposition figures and lack of media freedom”. The teenage son of the opposition party spokesperson was stabbed. The son of the opposition chairman was detained. A candidate for the presidency was arrested on trumped-up charges. Eight journalists were imprisoned. Four candidates were denied registration because the electoral commission invalidated signatures supporting their nomination. Amnesty International reported that “those who attempted to take part in peaceful rallies faced harassment, beatings and arrest”. The evidence of systemic fraud was overwhelming with blatant ballot box stuffing.
Anġlu Farrugia visited Azerbaijan several times, ‘observing’ many of its elections and always spoke positively about them- Kevin Cassar
As the OSCE presented its findings in Baku, its observers were attacked by pro-government journalists. “The OSCE must be destroyed,” they chanted. They broadcast the OSCE’s “incompetence and simple stupidity” and accused the OSCE of “spreading lies by the opposition”.
The OSCE charged Farrugia’s EAEO of “whitewashing election fraud”. Whitewashing was exactly what Aliyev needed. So Farrugia was back in Baku in November 2015 with Debono Grech. They were welcomed by Aliyev himself, who noted the “fruitful discussions held with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat during his visits to Azerbaijan”.
The speaker returned to Baku the following year, this time as head of an EAEO delegation, to observe a constitutional referendum. Again, he lauded Azerbaijan: “We observed peaceful organised voting.” Farrugia insisted “no problem was noted”, “the police did not interfere with the process” and “the counting of ballots was done transparently and freely”.
The European Partnership for Democracy was incensed. They reported massive violations, including ballot-box stuffing, multiple voting and carousel group voting. The official turnout did not tally with real figures and “the referendum failed to meet international commitments of the country with regards to democratic elections”.
That controversial referendum gave Aliyev even more autocratic power. The following year, he appointed his wife vice president. He could now run for president as many times as he wanted. The presidential term was increased from five to seven years. The law was changed to allow his 19-year-old son, Heydar, to run for president. In 2018, Aliyev won the presidential election with 86 per cent of the vote. But for Farrugia that referendum was a “big democratic step towards the future”.
Aliyev and his family continued to tighten their iron grip on power with increasingly violent and repressive means. They looted more of the country’s wealth, becoming Mossack Fonseca’s biggest clients. They owned multiple companies registered in Panama to keep their obscene looted wealth hidden from prying eyes.
When Khadijah Ismayilova, a brave journalist, uncovered extensive Aliyev family corruption, secret cameras were installed by Aliyev’s secret services in her bedroom and intimate footage of the journalist with her boyfriend were used in an attempt to silence her. When that failed, she was arrested on trumped-up charges – incitement to suicide – and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison. In 2017, she received the Swedish Right Livelihood Award for her “courage and tenacity in exposing corruption at the highest levels”. She could not collect the award as Aliyev banned her from travelling.
That same year, Daphne Caruana Galizia, another journalist lauded for her courage, was assassinated. Farrugia continued to damage the reputation of his parliament when he refused to name a hall after the journalist. His excuse was that doing so would “erode impartiality”.