On May 23, 1992 a massive onetonne bomb blew up six cars, destroyed 500 metres of highway and killed prosecuting magistrate Giovanni Falcone and five others. Falcone was assassinated for exposing the Mafia’s crimes and bringing Mafia bosses to justice. Falcone had to be stopped.

Robert Abela has blown up the inquiring magistrate with his threats and violent rhetoric. He’s unleashed his mob upon the magistrate. He’s using his media organisation to publish her photos. He’s intent on destroying her.

Day after day, Abela leaks more details about the magistrate. First, he announced that the magistrate submitted her proces verbal on the day when nominations for the European Parliament elections opened. Then he added more spicy details – she’d submitted it exactly on the hour when nominations opened. Now he’s informed us of the huge cost of her inquiry – €11 million. He’s accusing her of issuing millions worth of direct orders, without any due diligence.

He’s accused her of political bias and of bad intentions. He declared that the magistrate wanted to “influence not only the political process but also determine the result of June 8”. That’s entirely absurd. He’s already indicated he will not accept the magistrate’s conclusions, ostensibly without seeing them.

In 1992, the Mafia declared war on the Italian state in order to protect its assets and evade justice. Fifty-seven days after Falcone’s assassination, Paolo Borsellino met the same fate. In 1993, a bomb outside the Florentine Uffizi gallery killed six people, including a mother and her two young daughters. Five more were killed outside a Milan art gallery. Two churches in Rome were blown up. State officials, including former prime minister Giulio Andreotti, had been working with the Mafia clandestinely.

In Malta, our prime minister openly defends the interests of the criminal organisation behind the biggest fraud in our history. The court found that “senior government officials” were complicit in the fraud.

Now Abela is destroying the magistrate for doing her work and for exposing details of the corrupt concession of half of our health service to a bunch of shady businessmen with absolutely no health experience. Abela is doing all he can to undermine justice and to protect those who orchestrated the scam.

The difference between Andreotti and Abela is that Andreotti worked in the shadows. His involvement with the Mafia was secret. Abela abuses his power openly and publicly to provide a criminal organisation protection.

Tommaso Buscetta was a lifelong Mafia mobster but turned police informant when his brother, son-in-law and two nephews were killed by the Mafia. Testifying before a District of Columbia subcommittee, Buscetta commented: “Over the years, I’ve seen our organisation change from within. I’ve seen money, drugs and greed destroy the Cosa Nostra’s code of honour and loyalty to the families. In Sicily, Cosa Nostra began as a way of protecting the weak. The Mafia no longer serves that purpose. Today, it takes from everybody and gives nothing back. It exists only for the personal benefit of its members. These are men who let gross amounts of money rule their actions.”

Buscetta’s testimony may well be referring to Malta’s Labour Party.

Abela too is letting gross amounts of money rule his actions. His frontal assault on the magistrate and the judiciary is intended to shield those who robbed the nation of millions. The inquiry report has now been leaked, exposing the sordid details of how Joseph Muscat’s gang looted the country dry.

Falcone’s detailed investigations helped expose the link between criminals and politicians. Falcone submitted a report consisting of 8,797 pages, 40 volumes of evidence against 475 people. Nobody questioned the timing of his report’s submission. The people of Palermo, who suffered most at the hands of the Mafia, weren’t fussed about the day when that voluminous report was handed in. It was its contents that interested them.

Robert Abela knows that if justice were allowed to take its course, those responsible for the fraudulent Vitals deal would be jailed- Kevin Cassar

The Italian state didn’t accuse Falcone of political bias. It didn’t attempt to discredit him. It was the Mafia that attempted to tarnish his integrity, releasing letters alleging that Falcone abused his power.  Abela is doing the same –  intentionally and recklessly assassinating the magistrate’s character and implying that the magistrate abused her power.

The Italian state built a special bunker courthouse inside the walls of Palermo’s Ucciardone prison. It passed legislation making association with the Mafia a crime. For the first time, the state publicly acknowledged the existence of the Mafia.

Based on Falcone’s work, on December 16, 1987, Judge Alfonso Giordano read out his verdict – 338 persons were found guilty, 19 of them were sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge condemned mob bosses and their associates and co-conspirators to a total of 2,665 years of jail time.

In Malta, a criminal organisation blew up journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia to silence her and to stop her exposing the links between criminals and politicians at the highest level. For years, Muscat resisted a public inquiry. Only the most intense European pressure ensured the inquiry proceeded.

The inquiry concluded that Caruana Galizia’s assassination was a “terroristic Mafia-like act”. The inquiry board strongly recommended that Malta’s criminal code should be amended to include the crime of “Mafia-like criminal association” (Di associazione a delinquere di stampo mafioso). The inquiry also recommended introducing the crime of abuse of office.

Abela has had almost three years to implement those recommendations. He hasn’t and he won’t. He’s declared openly: “No, I do not accept that Malta is a Mafia-state.” Abela rejected the conclusions and recommendations of that inquiry too. Abela knows that if justice were allowed to take its course, those responsible for the fraudulent Vitals deal would be jailed.

Even the Mafia mobster Buscetta contritely declared before the court: “I am ready to pay my debts towards society.” Abela shows no such contrition. He’s determined to destroy the magistrate and to halt the wheels of justice – in order to protect his friends, his party and his power. He’s taken a blowtorch to our democracy, burning down the judicial branch.

Even the President of the Republic is now having a change of heart. After refusing to comment about Abela’s vicious assault on the judiciary, she’s finally spoken out. Maybe she’ll also think again about claiming, before the inquiry had even concluded, that the man she calls “Ġowżef”, “did many good things” and “already paid the price”.

Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.