Rule of law NGO Repubblika has demanded Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa's resignation following his "continued inaction" over revelations that claim the police staged a cover-up to refrain from prosecuting officials linked to the now-shuttered Pilatus Bank.

In a book on the now shuttered bank published last month, Repubblika president Robert Aquilina features a series of e-mails the group says is evidence of the way three police inspectors discussed how they needed to justify the decision not to prosecute Pilatus Bank’s former risk manager and operations supervisor, despite a magisterial inquiry recommending money-laundering charges against them.

In a press conference outside police headquarters in Floriana on Thursday, Aquilina said the police commissioner had shirked his responsibility to the public by failing to react to this “shocking and unprecedented evidence”. 

“He is accountable to the public and should have given a public explanation about what I have revealed,” Aquilina said.

“Instead he has behaved like a ghost and has run away from journalists and the people seeking answers from him.”

While Gafa had said that he would be replying in court, Aquilina said this was unacceptable because the police commissioner knew proceedings were being carried out behind closed doors, where Repubblika did not have the opportunity to rebut his replies in a public forum.

“Angelo Gafa is the biggest threat to justice taking its course in our country,” Aquilina charged.

“In three years as police commissioner he had not charged any big fish that broke the law.  The only people who have peace of mind are the corrupt clique.”

Gafa, he said, has consistently failed to take action on big cases such as Panama Papers, Electrogas, 17 Black, the Montenegro wind farms, the sale of Maltese hospitals or abuse and money laundering in Azerbaijan.

“He had staged a cover-up on every one of these abuses through his inaction,” Aquilina said.

Gafa had ended up with the same reputation of inaction as his predecessor Lawrence Cutajar.

Aquilina urged Gafa to resign as police commissioner and step aside and leave it in the hands of people capable of leading the police corps with integrity and “out of the hole” that he had dug the country into.