Lawyer Franco Debono is still actively contributing to the Nationalist Party and still regularly communicates, Opposition Bernard Grech said on Sunday.
A day after the criminal lawyer made a surprise appearance on a radio show to defend himself from claims that he was demanding a top spot in the party’s leadership to return to the PN, Grech was asked during an interview whether he would be willing to welcome Debono into the party.
Grech replied that Debono still forms part of the PN and that the two regularly communicate.
“This idea that Franco needs to be welcomed back into the party is not correct. Franco is still in the party. He is a registered member (tesserat), he is one of the party’s councillors and he is already contributing,” he said.
“Everyone has a place in the party. Everybody must understand that this is a party of 'us' and not just 'me'. Together we are going to help the country advance and not push for our personal gain. With that foundation, we can keep working and I can work with anyone.”
On Saturday, lawyer Edward Debono had expressed scepticism of Franco Debono being welcomed back into the PN, claiming that the latter had written on Facebook that forming part of the party’s top brass would be a pre-condition of him rejoining the party.
However, minutes later, Franco Debono turned up to RTK studios asking to rebut the allegation on air, which host Andrew Azzopardi accepted.
“Edward Debono lied about me. I will tolerate opinions, but I will not tolerate lies,” he said.
“I am not going to tolerate people lying about me. I was at home. I have work to do,” Debono said as he challenged his fellow lawyer to present proof to back up his claim.
When contacted by Times of Malta, Edward Debono was unable to provide the Facebook post he had alluded to but said he was "sure" that he had read a post in which Franco Debono wrote that "nothing should be excluded" for those reintegrated into the PN.
Times of Malta was also unable to find a post published within the past months in which Debono set any such condition on him returning to the PN.
Government should retract white paper on drug court reform
Grech doubled down on his criticism of the government’s plans to reform drug laws, saying that the state was not listening to people’s concerns and was being stubborn as it had with its “watered down abortion bill” and the Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry.
Earlier this month, the government published a white paper saying it intended to reform rules surrounding drug court by revising the maximum amount of narcotics that a person can be caught with and still be tried before the drug court.
Drug courts have the ability to send the accused to rehab rather than prison if the judiciary is morally convinced that the person sold drugs while in active addiction to fund their habit.
This only applies when the court has already ruled that the drugs involved in the crime were not for personal use and magistrates can choose to assign a defendant to drug court if they are caught with up to 300 grams of cannabis, 300 ecstasy pills or 100 grams of cocaine or heroin.
The government wants to increase those limits to 500 grams of cannabis, 500 ecstasy pills or 200 grams of cocaine or heroin.
However, Grech on Sunday insisted that the government is trying to allow people to possess up to 500 ecstasy pills for personal use and is deceiving people.
“Everyone is telling you that we understand this to be trafficking,” Grech said.
“The message is clear, retract this white paper immediately.”
“If need be, we can research and analyse to see where society is heading on this issue and what we can do to help victims,” he continued. “But this law, 500 pills is drug pushing to destroy our youth and children and this is not acceptable to us or anybody else.”