On October 16, 2017, in the morning, my partner, Simon was in court. He was sued for libel by the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri. He had taken offence at Simon calling him ‘corrupt’ in a mass protest. This was right after Daphne Caruana Galizia had released information about Schembri’s secret shady company in Panama.
That morning of October 16, it was Schembri’s turn to testify. And whoever was present in court noted Schembri’s body language, as he was questioned by his own lawyers. The questions were easy-peasy, sugar coated and rehearsed, and he was squeaking a rehearsed answer about how saintly and uncorrupt he was.
Yet his body language was very different from what was coming out of his mouth. He was sweating, shaking, breathless, and almost hyperventilating with each stupid and vague answer he was giving.
That’s the behaviour of an extremely guilty man, I remember thinking to myself, and thought nothing more.
Three hours later, journalist Caruana Galizia was blown up to pieces.
Two years on we are living a real, never-ending nightmare. Last week, Yorgen Fenech, the prime suspect in the Daphne assassination investigation, alleged that Schembri was the mastermind behind the murder. Schembri was arrested; the Prime Minister did not resign; and on Thursday, Schembri was released without charge.
In the words of Daphne’s son Matthew: “Yorgen Fenech confessed to murder. He shares a doctor with Schembri, Muscat’s chief of staff. That doctor confessed to passing messages from Schembri to Fenech while Fenech was in custody. Despite this damning evidence of criminality, the police released Schembri just now.”
Your Excellency, you have the moral authority to speak out and save Malta from this abyss
I’ll add to that. According to a leaked e-mail, Schembri is also receiving illicit kickbacks from Fenech’s secret company 17 Black – a stinky corrupt deal if ever there was one resulting in him pocketing €5,000 a day. And yet despite all this, the investigators shook their head and said: “Nah, we don’t need to detain Keith anymore. Release him.”
This week as well, we found out that the Prime Minister, for the last year-and-a-half, knew that Fenech was a suspect – and kept on meeting him. Did an inspector call in the Prime Minister for questioning? Ma tarax.
This is such a dark time that it’s making us all physically sick. We have a prime minister and his chief of staff puppeteering everything.
On Friday morning they must have been high-fiving each other and giggling about how they hoodwinked the nation and got away with everything scot-free. They abused power in all sorts of nightmarish manners to avoid justice.
Schembri will now “move on” – maybe to beach in Panama? – after he was thanked by the Prime Minister “for his crucial role”. What crucial roles exactly? That of bringing the reputation of this country in tatters?
Muscat please know that you are deceiving no one but yourselves. Wherever you go in the world you will be seen as the loser with blood on his hands. You will look in the mirror and it won’t reflect back that smirk of yours, but you’ll see blood and rot. You will have the respect of no one except your own yes men. You have become a plague to yourself and now you want the whole of Malta to become the scourge of Europe. We won’t stand by and let that happen.
At this point our appeal must go to the President of Malta, George Vella.
Your Excellency, your protégée Muscat has turned Castille into a Mafia and has brought the whole country to a standstill.
President Vella, may I remind you about your inaugural speech earlier this year. You said that your priorities will be to heal divisions, to be a voice to those not heard, to promote Malta’s values and to see that there is a fair distribution of wealth.
Now is the time to speak out in favour of truth, speak out against the thwarting of justice; now is the time to say loud and clear that the people leading this country cannot have even a whiff of a trace of blood on their hands and not in a couple of months’ time.
Your Excellency – do we have to beg you to make a symbolic gesture and visit the Great Siege monument in front of the law courts where our only weapons in this fight for justice – candles and flowers – are being wiped out every day?
You have the moral authority to speak out and save Malta from this abyss. When are you going to break his silence your Excellency? Daphne was one of us, Mr President. Maltija bħali u bħalek. She was more – she was a journalist who was unearthing corruption scum and killed on duty. Your duty is to stand by your people and stop your nation from being taken over by the Mafia.
Your Excellency, your silence is otherwise complicity.
krischetcuti@gmail.com
twitter: @krischetcuti