Far-rightists had no police permit for Black Lives Matter counter-protest

A far-right protest that was allowed to take place behind a police cordon had no official permit was illegal.

The Malta Police Force confirmed that the only permit secured for a mass gathering in Valletta had been by Integra Foundation, one of the convenors of the Justice for Lassana memorial and Black Lives Matter event.

The counter-protest was attended by just under 40 people, but was vocally vitriolic at the hundreds of activists who reacted with dignified shows of placards and silence.

A police cordon kept the counter-protestors at bay

The protest appeared to be led by two frontmen: former police sergeant Raymond Ambrogio, who was part of a group that carried out an impromptu protest on the Sette Giugno monument after Malta disembarked 425 migrants rescued by the AFM; and Noah’s Ark zoo owner Anton Cutajar, who has published numerous livestreams on Facebook encouraging people to protest human rights activists.

Photos from the event posted on social media also show one of the activists performing a Hitler salute, while another protestor, a bouncer employed at the Havana club in Paceville, making offensive monkey gestures at the activists and people of colour during the event.

Members from the far-right party Imperium Europa, whose leader Norman Lowell is an avowed holocaust-denier, were also present.

Even during a symbolic kneel at the end of the memorial, the far-right activists booed at what was supposed to be a solemn moment remembering George Floyd, murdered in Minneapolis by a police officer, and Lassana Cisse, an Ivorian worker killed by two maltese soldiers in a drive-by shooting in Birżebbuġa in 2019.

Investigating officers have described the shooting a racially motivated murder. Two men are charged with the murder and the compilation of evidence is ongoing.

The protest on Monday on the back of government’s tough stand on migration, which left hundreds of people rescued at sea, detained on Captain Morgan pleasure boats outside territorial waters for more than a month.

Government eventually gave in and allowed the 425 migrants to disembark on Saturday after people driven by despair mounted an attempt to commandeer the boats and threatened crew members.