PN call for Labour deputy leader’s resignation

The Nationalist Party has kept up the pressure on Labour deputy leader Toni Abela, in a renewed dissection of his statements in the wake of a secret recording in which he is heard saying that he had asked a police officer not to press charges against a former Labour Party member.

"Abela's position is untenable and he must resign immediately," PN deputy leader Simon Busuttil said. "His inconsistency was revealed when he denied having placed any pressure on a police officer.

"Was Joseph Muscat aware of this case? And why have 24 hours elapsed since this case was revealed, without any action being taken by Muscat on this scandalous revelation?"

The controversy centres around a secret recording taken in 2010 in which Abela is heard telling Labour members from the Attard committee, at a meeting held at the Labour headquarters, that he asked a police officer at the Birkirkara police station not to press charges against a Labour activist.

Abela has declared that Richard Vella, formerly the barman at the PL's Attard club, had reported a committee member to the police for changing the locks on the bar. Abela says he intervened to tell the police officer the matter was not a criminal, but a civil case that did not required no police intervention.

However, the PN is latching on to the version of events delivered by Vella himself in a court of law a week earlier: Vella, charged of involvement in a brawl with Labour local councillor from Attard, John Bonnici, told the court that a secret recording existed of Abela telling committee members that he had intervened with police not to press charges against him.

Abela has denied this connection to the case, saying Vella was expelled from the Labour Party due to his behaviour at the Attard club.

Yesterday, Nationalist whip David Agius said he himself had delivered the contents of this secret recording to the Commissioner of Police in 2010.

However, it transpires that the police never took any action on the matter - a fact which Labour says confirms that Abela is not guilty of any wrongdoing.