Get a move on – Joe Azzopardi

Prime Minister Robert Abela has ignored all requests, even from a brokenhearted mother, for a public inquiry into last December’s construction site death of 20-year-old Jean Paul Sofia.

He defends his stance by stating that “a public inquiry hinders and does not help achieve justice”.

To make us believe he really wants all those responsible to answer for their actions, he gave a harsh scolding to the magistrate presiding over the magisterial inquiry.

The remnants of the building were meanwhile razed to the ground a few days ago.

The land on which the private factory was being built is leased to Lands Authority senior official Kurt Buhagiar and his business partner Matthew Schembri. Architect Adriana Zammit, an Infrastructure Malta employee, designed the collapsed building.

But one has to ask why our premier does not complain to his appointees – Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg and Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa – about the unacceptable delays in prosecuting certain acquaintances.

And forget the nonsense that Gafa was appointed through the Public Service Commission as it was the government, read Robert Abela, that handpicked him.

Former assistant police commissioner Ian Abdilla is meanwhile still to face disciplinary proceedings despite having been suspended from the corps for more than a year.

Abdilla is notoriously known for his long inaction despite having direct evidence from the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit that implicated a number of people in relation to the Panama Papers investigations.

Since his suspension, he has started working as a tour guide with Heritage Malta, under the responsibility of Minister Owen Bonnici. Ian Abdilla will soon be quite busy guiding tourists around Malta’s historic sites.

In the final Egrant Report, Magistrate (now Judge) Aaron Bugeja gave an order to the police commissioner to investigate Nexia BT’s Karl Cini for perjury and for misleading the public inquiry on the ownership of the ignoble Egrant Inc.

The magistrate not only ordered the investigation into Cini’s failures but stressed that his testimony was contradicted by forensic experts engaged to assist in the inquiry.

Magistrate Bugeja also ordered investigations leading to prosecution be taken against Maria Efimova and Jonathan Ferris.

In the latter case, the commissioner of police eagerly complied. But in the case of Karl Cini, one can assume that the order was totally ignored as there wasn’t any declaration from the police that Cini was investigated.

Anyone with any intellect would conclude that the police commissioner is defying a court order by refusing to investigate Karl Cini for perjury, which can carry a punishment of between seven months to two years imprisonment.

Silvio Valletta – former assistant police commissioner, former head of the criminal investigation department of the Malta police, former Malta police representative on the FIAU board, former lead investigator into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination and former husband of ex-minister Justyne Caruana was also accused of perjury by none other than Keith Schembri.

Testifying under oath before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee Committee, Schembri denied that he spoke to Silvio Valletta, who testified under oath before the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry that the former chief of staff of disgraced prime minister Joseph Muscat,  had called to stop questioning murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.

“Are you going to question someone on the basis of an article in The Times?” Valletta quoted Schembri telling him.

Schembri said in front of the PAC Committee that Silvio Valletta was lying. The Opposition PAC members rightly asked the police commissioner to conduct a perjury investigation.

Now wouldn’t it be a great idea if our premier would write or send an SMS to Victoria Buttigieg and Angelo Gafa to encourage them to get a move on and investigate and arraign these buddies before it becomes too late and the cases become inadmissible and time-barred?