The man who wrote a Facebook comment suggesting the health minister skimmed money off a government project said he stands by his comment, even after the minister asked police to investigate him yesterday.

Under a news story announcing a new MRI scanner for the Gozo General Hospital, Albert Mamo asked: “How much did you make in commissions Mr Minister???”

On Wednesday Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela asked the police to investigate Mamo and another person. A second Facebook user replied to that with the comment “mmmmm countless”.

Abela said the two comments were defamatory and merited criminal investigation.

'This is free speech'

But Mamo defended his question when contacted by Times of Malta. 

“I stand by the comment. Nobody can deny the fact that there has been a lot of corruption in government and in the healthcare system over the past years, and I believe the doubts I expressed in that comment are valid,” Mamo said. 

“I don’t have proof of wrongdoing, but with all the corruption that has been revealed over the past decade, I believe it’s only fair to pose that question.”

He said his comment was merely free speech. “This is free speech. Politicians should be open to criticism. It goes part and parcel with the job,” he said.

Mamo had similarly landed in hot water when he was taken to court and fined over a disparaging comment about Minister Ian Borg some years back.

In Malta, defamation is a civil, not criminal matter, as criminal libel was struck off by the Labour government some years ago.

The MRI scanner, which the government said cost €3 million to purchase, is a high-end model that will allow Gozo-based patients to undergo a range of MRI scans without crossing over to Malta. It will take over from a temporary, portable MRI machine that was installed in the Gozo hospital at the start of the year.