Muscat ‘realised on Sunday’ that drug incident pertained to Safi club

Labour leader Joseph Muscat has claimed he "realised" last Sunday that a drugs incident inside a Labour club - currently being given much publicity by the PN - had taken place at the Safi kazin and not in Attard, after having repeatedly stated that the drugs case and the Attard squabble with former barman Richard Vella were separate.

The PN today accused Muscat of being fully aware of a case in which an allegedly illegal substance was produced inside a Labour club, which took place in 2009. The matter came to light in a secret recording of Labour deputy leader for party affairs Toni Abela speaking to members of the Attard committee, where he was explaining that the club president had disposed of the illegal substance. The recording was produced in a court case by former Attard club barman Richard Vella, who is facing charges of having started a fight with Labour local councillor John Bonnici.

"What I can confirm is that until Sunday I knew of no drug case involving the Attard club. This is an important point which I want to clarify," he said.

The Labour leader added that on Sunday evening, after an interview broadcast by the PN media, he realised that the PN was talking about a total different case and the word which rang a bell was when the person interviewed said "kellu blokka silg" (he had a block of ice).

Muscat insisted that the issue concerns a person who was prohibited from operating the Labour club's bar, on unconfirmed suspicison that he had consented to drug use. He added that the persons who reported the case to Labour "didn't want to testify and wanted to remain anonymous".

Muscat said that he remembered Toni Abela informing him about the case. The Labour leader was speaking hours after the PN revealed that Muscat betrayed himself when denying any knowledge of a case revealed last week when Abela was heard on a recording speaking about a drug case in a PL club.

Muscat said he stood by Abela's decision to ban the barman from the Labour club. "When this person met me, he asked me to reinstate him. But my answer was no: I would not reverse the decision taken by Abela," he said.

When asked to confirm reports claiming that the club in question was that of Safi, Muscat refused to comment instructing journalists to pose the question to the Nationalist Party.

Muscat also said it was "absolutely not true" that the barman in question saw other persons with the drugs at the club.

"This is absolutely untrue. We received information from trustworthy persons that the individual in question was consenting drug trafficking," he said, reiterating that the PL had no evidence with which to proceed.

The Labour leader commented that it was now "clear" why the person had wanted to take a picture with him.

"During our meeting he asked to take a photo with me... and now I understand why," Muscat said, adding that it would have been a story if the barman was reinstated after the allegations made.