“Mr Mark Camilleri prepare a coffee for me because I’m coming to visit you, and we’ll have a quiet word.” That intimidating message sounds like a Mafia warning to a pentito. It was sent by Joseph Muscat’s protégé, Neville Gafà to the former Labour stalwart, who escaped these shores for his own safety after he turned against Labour.
Since then, Camilleri has been a vociferous critic of Labour and, particularly, Muscat. In default style, Labour retaliated against Camilleri’s “betrayal” by hounding and harassing him into exile. Even Robert Abela joined in the public persecution of Camilleri, calling him “ultra cruel” when he published the notorious Rosianne Cutajar-Yorgen Fenech chats.
Cutajar reported him to the police, triggering lightning speed criminal proceedings against him. But now Muscat’s heavy, Gafà, has gone a step further.
“By the way,” Gafà told Camilleri, “they’ve revealed where you live, moron. You should never have trusted. How could you make such a silly mistake when you’re so terrified of being found? What a quiet place you have. Before I forget, some Slavs who live in the same Latin country as you sent their regards. They read what you wrote about them. They’re very interested in what you wrote. It’s a shame you’re writing against them. We’ll talk.”
Gafà appears brazen and confident that he’s above the law by sending that message in a blogpost for all to see. He knows there’ll be no police knock on his door. He’s certain he won’t be called in for questioning.
Gafà flaunts his absolute impunity with total disregard. It’s like he’s got Muscat on his side.
For months, Muscat protected Gafà, claiming he didn’t know which government ministry Gafà worked in. Chris Fearne stated categorically that Gafà didn’t work in his health ministry after the damning revelations about the medical visa scam. The foreign ministry also denied Gafà worked there. It took several months and FOI requests before it was finally revealed that Gafà was working in Muscat’s OPM all along as a person of trust.
The Malta Independent alleged that Gafà was “netting €150,000 per month from a medical visa scam”. They published receipts for up to €35,000 that Gafà allegedly received. He was accused of charging €2,500 per visa issued. Khalid Ben Nasan notified then minister Konrad Mizzi about the scam and Gafà’s alleged involvement.
Two days after the shocking revelations, Malta’s police force categorically declared “Mr Gafà was not involved in criminal behaviour”. That’s incredible. Most of the witnesses to Gafà’s alleged crimes were in Libya. How did the police conclude its investigations in just 48 hours?
There was worse. The police threatened they were considering arraigning Nasan who exposed the scam. In July 2017, they followed up on their threat. Nasan was charged with fraud and extortion. But court testimony revealed that the police hadn’t searched Gafà’s office or his house. They didn’t confiscate his electronic devices. Assistant Police Commissioner Ian Abdilla took no action.
When Ivan Grech Mintoff provided recorded testimonies of 13 witnesses implicating Gafà in the scam, Gafà travelled to Libya and allegedly attempted to bribe witnesses into silence offering them €300,000. Gafà confirmed he’d travelled to Libya.
“Yes, it happened”, he told LovinMalta, “I went there to confront them because of the false allegations they were making.”
Gafà also hounded David Lindsay, The Malta Independent on Sunday editor who’d published those damning revelations. Gafà lodged a civil suit and a complaint with the police against Lindsay. The police instituted criminal procedures against the journalist.
Neville Gafà knows there’ll be no police knock on his door- Kevin Cassar
While the police were criminally proceeding against the editor, LovinMalta reported that no criminal inquiry was ever opened into the medical visa scam.
After months of Gafà’s harassment and intimidation, The Malta Independent was vindicated. In May 2022, the court concluded that the newspapers’ revelations about Gafà “consisted of verifiable facts” and were “substantially true”. The court ordered the police commissioner to investigate Gafà’s alleged tampering with evidence and his attempts to bribe witnesses.
On August 7, 2022, the police were asked for an update about Gafà’s investigation. The police’s terse reply read: “Kindly note that, in view of Article 87 of the Police Act, this restricts the police from divulging details of ongoing investigations.”
Two years later, Gafà still hadn’t been charged. Nobody knows whether those “investigations” are ongoing. What’s certain is that Gafà is so emboldened by police inaction that he openly threatens journalists with total impunity ‒ and not for the first time.
In June 2020, Gafà publicly threatened Italian journalist Nello Scavo, who’d been working for Italian newspaper Avvenire uncovering organised crime related to people trafficking. Gafà told Scavo: “Stop your dirty business. If not, we will be stopping you.”
When the case came before the court after international pressure by media freedom organisations, Gafà was acquitted. Magistrate Charmaine Galea ruled there was insufficient evidence to find Gafà guilty. She decided that the fact that Scavo replied to Gafà’s threat with a message – “who is we?” – indicated he wasn’t really threatened, despite the fact that Scavo was under Italian police protection following threats he’d received relating to his reports on organised crime.
The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) was shocked with the court decision. ECPMF commented that Gafà’s acquittal was “an injustice to Scavo” and “a disappointment for everyone who considers that receiving threats and insults should not be a routine part of the job for journalists”. They warned that “failure to address verbal threats from government officials demonise the media and can lead to physical acts of violence and reinforce a message of impunity”.
Time proved them right. Gafà is still menacing and intimidating journalists for doing their work. He even targeted Karl Gouder immediately before his untimely death.
Gafà won’t stop because he knows he’s protected. The police never conducted a proper criminal investigation into his medical visa scam despite the overwhelming evidence. The police blatantly ignored the court’s order to investigate his alleged attempted silencing of witnesses. The police haven’t called him in for questioning over his latest threats.
We can only watch helpless as another Labour tough guy runs amok. In the country of Daphne’s assassination, Labour still weaponises the institutions to threaten journalists critical of its government.
No wonder Abela hasn’t implemented any of the recommendations made by the Caruana Galizia inquiry.