Updated | Busuttil: Gozo drug inquiry a ‘whitewash’

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was, without any doubt, covering for two of his ministers who in 2013 had a late-night secret meeting at the Gozo Ministry with the father of a suspect implicated in a drug trafficking case, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said Tuesday evening.

MaltaToday revealed last month that following the meeting, a woman arrested by the police and who identified two men who supplied her the drugs, had changed her statement so that the men were no longer implicated.

In an interview on Mhux Ghax Jimpurtani on Net TV, Busuttil said he was sure the conclusions of the inquiry would be a “whitewash” in favour of the government, especially since the government had appointed a former Labour candidate to investigate claims against two Labour minister, instead of appointing an independent three-judge inquiry board.

The conclusions of the inquiry will be presented to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Wednesday.

Asked if the PN knew the identity of the ministers involved and what had happened that night, he said that it did not take an expert to reach the right conclusion.

“Who has access to the Gozo ministry: Simon Busuttil or the minister for Gozo? And which other minister or politician could have arrived at the ministry with a police escort? Who has a police escort? I imagine only the Prime Minister and the minister responsible for the police have an escort,” he said. “So there is not much leeway here.”

Both Gozo minister Anton Refalo and former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia denied their involvement in the case.

Busuttil said that, as a bare minimum, the Prime Minister should have already had the decency to say who the two politicians involved were, especially since this case involved drugs and drug trafficking.

This, he said, was a classic case of Joseph Muscat choosing to defend drug traffickers and the politicians who covered for them, instead of defending every child, teen and even adults from the dangers of drugs and those who trafficked them.

“Every parent wants to be reassured that their children are being protected by the police, ministers and the government,” Busuttil said.

Because of such behaviour by the government, people were starting to realise that the next general election would be an important one and that their decision on the day could change everything.

But with the Labour government in place, and because of the way Joseph Muscat was leading the country, the Opposition was not in a position to guarantee that only people entitled to vote in the upcoming general election would actually do so, Busuttil acknowledged.

He said the Opposition could not allow the government to blatantly attempt to tamper with the electoral system.

The PN was therefore closely following developments at Identity Malta, after news emerged that a number of people had been issued more than one identity card, and could therefore cast more than one vote in a general election.

“We have a team dedicated to keeping a very close eye on what is happening, to check every detail, as we have done in the past in the case of the citizenship scheme,” he said.

“But as things stand, I cannot guarantee that only people entitle to vote will actually do so.”

Busuttil said that he was worried that the government persisted in denying the allegations, despite all the evidence presented, and promised the Opposition would continue to insist that the government ensure that no irregularities are allowed to happen.

“The man on street wants to be sure that democracy is not being subjugated, that this country remain normal and decent,” he said. “That is all people want, so we are warning the government to keep its hands off democracy.”

As to last week’s news of the first budget surplus in 35 years, Busuttil insisted that the Labour government had not invested in any major project, but had at the same time increased its recurrent expenditure.

“So while I welcome the surplus, I would have preferred if the government had invested, and invested heavily, in infrastructure at all levels, while cutting back on waste expenditure.

Busuttil said that despite the country’s economic growth, a portion of society was not registering any change in the quality of life.

“We have many people on less than €11,000 a year and pensioners who cannot make ends meet and who cannot afford medicine they need,” he said.

On Air Malta and its future, Busuttil said that the national airline was crucial for the country’s future.

“The PN is committed to finding a viable solution to ensure we revive Air Malta, and we are pleased to note that proposals we have made over a year ago now seem to have been taken up by the government,” he said.

Busuttil also referred to the recent uploading of a video showing a female postal work performing sexual acts and last Sunday’s condemnation by the Prime Minister of the person who had uploaded the video, whom he referred to as a coward.

“I wonder why Joseph Muscat did not call this persons a ‘soldier of steel’ like he had called his friend Cyrus Engerer who was convicted by the courts for the same thing and whom he went on to send to Brussels with a hefty salary,” he said.

Busuttil said the Prime Minister still thought people were stupid and gullible, but he would learn otherwise.

Busuttil cannot be ‘judge and jury’ - PL

In reaction to Busuttil’s comments, the Labour Party called the Opposition leader “arrogant,” saying that he believes he is the “judge and jury on every case”.

“[Simon Busuttil] tries to discredit every investigations involving government officials unless the investigation yields results to his liking, as has happened before in investigations into government ministers,” the Labour Party said in a statement.

The party also pointed out that Busuttil failed time and time again to take action when investigations or institutional reports revolved around people within his inner circle, naming Beppe Fenech Adami, Jason Azzopardi and Chris Said.

“In the case of these three prominent members [of the PN], there is a condemning report by the Auditor General and former judges.”

“Busuttil’s credibility disintegrated when he was preaching honesty, and yet was taking illegal donation from prominent business people. Worse than that, he lied and said the payments were for advertising when such advertising never took place,” the PL added, referring to the issue of party funding.

Last month, the Nationalist Party was revealed to have received money from db Group to pay the salaries of two top officials.

“Therefore, when Busuttil speaks the way he did on Tuesday evening, he comes out hypocritical,” the PL said.