The Nationalist Party has demanded the publication of the full inquiry report into how the police failed to arrest gaming consultant Iosif Galea despite him being subject to a European Arrest Warrant issued at the request of German police last year.
Addressing a press conference outside police headquarters, PN Home Affairs spokesperson Joe Giglio said that the police had only published selected excerpts of the report and the Nationalist Party was still awaiting the publication of the full report.
The internal inquiry, chaired by Judge Emeritus Franco Depasquale, with Judge Emeritus Geoffrey Valenzia and Captain Reuben Lanfranco as members, found administrative shortcomings by two officers. The officers were not named and it is not known if they are still members of the force.
According to the conclusions of the Independent Police Complaints Board, there was no direction by top officials in the police force to help Galea, contrary to what could have been alleged.
The board also concluded that none of the police senior officials had any clue that a European Arrest Warrant had already been issued against Galea by the German police in May 2021, until he was arrested in Brindisi.
The police only issued the last three pages of the 19-page report which dealt with the board’s examination of whether Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà, Deputy Commissioner Alexandra Mamo and other senior police officials had been involved in the administrative deficiencies committed by the two officers.
“The police only published a select few pages of the report. It is clear from what was released that the method with which the police monitors who is coming and going to Malta is not working and needs to be changed,” Giglio said.
He added that Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri had not commented at all about the inquiry in the three weeks since it was published.
Galea, who runs his own consultancy firm, was previously a compliance officer at the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), which was called the Lotteries and Gaming Authority.
Maltese investigators fear he may have received sensitive insider information from the regulator and may have passed this on to interested parties.
He is subject to a second European Arrest Warrant issued at the request of the Maltese police earlier this year and is expected to face money laundering and tax evasion charges in Malta.
While Galea had been subject to the European Arrest Warrant issued by German police since early last year, police sources told Times of Malta he travelled out of Malta at least twice more before he was finally arrested in Italy in May.
He was arrested by the Italian Guardia di Finanza while on holiday in Italy with a group that included former prime minister Joseph Muscat.
Muscat had said he was not aware of the arrest warrant and he never had any personal or professional relationship with Galea. They were only in the same group because Galea was the boyfriend of a long-time friend.
Giglio said the situation within the police force was not at all rosy. Police officers are overstretched, overworked and underpaid and this was jeopardising national security.
Many of those who were still working in the force were seriously demotivated, many officers who had left had not being replaced and those who are still there looked forward to reaching 25 years of service to be able to retire. The situation in the police force also reflected badly on the country’s security situation, he said.