Watch: Refalo refuses further comment on Qala property linked to mafia boss

Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo has insisted he has nothing more to add about claims linking him to notorious Italian Mafia boss Toto Riina, dismissing the allegations as an “outright lie”.

Speaking to Times of Malta on Thursday, Refalo refused to elaborate on why he had leased a property in Qala that had previously been occupied by Riina. He said he had already said all he needed to on the matter.

“I believe everything I had to say has been said, and I probably said even more than I should have. I have no more comments to give.” 

When pressed about the lease agreement, Refalo repeatedly said he would not provide further details.

“This story has been going on, and it is outright lies. I have nothing else to add.”

The minister also said he had been forthcoming with documentation, including sharing information with Times of Malta, which had previously been shown the lease agreement, but which does not possess a copy.

The agreement was a 16-year lease signed in 2002 and expired eight years ago. In that agreement, the owner was represented by a legal representative.

“Yes, the lease agreement ended, but that is between the owner and me,” Refalo said.

The last known contract of sale for the Qala property dates back to May 1979, when it was sold to an Italian woman from Brescia in northern Italy. 

The controversy surfaced earlier this month following an investigative programme aired on Italian television channel RAI 3, Lo Stato Delle Cose. The programme linked Refalo to Riina through the Qala residence.

During the broadcast, Refalo was confronted by an Italian journalist outside the property. In that confrontation, he said he did not know who the Mafia boss was.

Riina, known as il capo dei capi,  the boss of bosses, was one of Sicily’s most feared Mafia leaders. He led the Corleonesi clan during the 1980s and 1990s and declared a violent campaign against the Italian state.

He is believed to have ordered the murder of up to 200 people, including anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

In a maxi trial of Sicilian mafia in Palermo in 1986, he was sentenced to life in prison in absentia, but was only captured in 1993 after 23 years of living as a fugitive. His capture provoked a series of bombings across Sicily in art galleries and churches.  

Refalo has previously dismissed attempts to link him to Riina, saying such claims were “absolute hogwash and cheap sensationalism.”