Repubblika starts 72-hour vigil outside Police HQ demanding Konrad Mizzi's prosecution

Members of rule-of-law NGO Repubblika will be holding a sit-in outside Police Headquarters over the coming days, which will culminate in a national protest outside Castille on Friday at 6:30pm.

Demonstrators will sit outside the headquarters for three days, aiming to spend days and nights by the depot, to protest the lack of police action taken against Konrad Mizzi.

“The moment Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà arrests and prosecutes the corrupt and honourable Konrad Mizzi, we will be ready to stop our action, leave the front of the depot and cancel the Friday protest,” Repubblika president Robert Aquilina said.

During a press conference announcing the sit-in, Aquilina condemned Konrad Mizzi’s repeated no-shows in front of Parliament’s public accounts committee.

“Konrad Mizzi's behavior is nothing but humiliation towards the country's institutions.”

He said Mizzi feels that he enjoys impunity from Gafà and Prime Minister Robert Abela, and suggested that both Gafà and Abela offer the level of impunity benefited from former commissioner Lawrence Cutajar and Joseph Muscat.

“Mizzi told the committee that he needs to prepare himself. We know that Konrad Mizzi likes to prepare for everything he does. He loves to prepare that as soon as he became Minister he prepared a Panama company.”

Aquilina questioned how Gafà hasn’t built a case against Mizzi, despite reports in local and international media on misconduct from Mizzi’s side.

However,  he insisted that Repubblika is not casting doubt on Gafà's capacity as police comissioner.

“He knows what to do when he wants to work,” Aquilina said, recalling the 2013 oil scandal first published by MaltaToday.

“Do you remember how long it took Gafà to bring people to court over that oil scandal? It took less than a month,” he continued.

Aquilina then compared the oil scandal to the Panama Papers, and how six years after its publication no one has been charged in court.

“Six years and Konrad Mizzi is still taking us for a ride. Six years of impunity with the blessing of the highest police officers and the Mafia in Castille.”

Aquilina listed the Vitals scandal, Steward concession, Montenegro wind farm, ITS deal as further scandals on which police took little action.

“We are convinced that this is why Konrad Mizzi feels untouchable. Because if Gafà brings down Mizzi, with him he will have to bring Muscat ... and if he brings Muscat, with him he will bring and tarnish the petty history of the Labour Government that made him CEO and now Commissioner.”