Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà has become the biggest obstruction for justice in Malta and his failure to act against the brains behind the benefit fraud scandal was as shocking as the scandal itself, rule of law group Repubblika said on Monday.
The NGO's president, Robert Aquilina, in hard-hitting comments outside police headquarters said Gafa's "failures" had made him the biggest protector of criminal politicians and their accomplices, and all of Malta now knew that he considered people close to the government as "untouchables".
"The police commissioner is showing, once more, that he is strong with the weak, and weak with the strong."
The benefit fraud scandal, publically revealed by Times of Malta three weeks ago, saw hundreds of people fraudulently claim severe disability benefits by using false documents and false signatures in a scheme operated by a former Labour MP and several people in ministerial customer care departments.
Aquilina pointed out that while the scandal became known three weeks ago, the police commissioner had known about it for 20 months. While action was rightly being taken against the small fry, the beneficiaries, nothing was being done against the brains behind the scheme, despite a "mountain of evidence".
“First of all, he hid the information from the public’s attention, total silence from him,” Aquilina said.
“No press conferences for journalists to ask their questions, and no official police statements regarding such investigations into the scandal. Just like Robert Abela, Angelo Gafà used silence to hide all political criminal responsibility.
“He did not arraign anyone among those who forged the doctors' signatures, nor those who falsified government documents,” he said.
He did not act against those government employees or those from the Labour Party who sent people to former MP Silvo Grixti.
Aquilina insisted that the commissioner had no other alternative but to step down so that somebody else could actually serve justice, not serve political criminals. Through his failures, he was creating further injustice and fostering even more impunity, he said.