PEN calls out threat by Muscat ally Neville Gafà against blogger Mark Camilleri

Writers association PEN Malta has expressed its deep concern at threats made by former Muscat administration official Neville Gafà, against the author Mark Camilleri, demanding a criminal investigation.

Gafà, who regularly posts on social media and his personal website, has started a series of posts teasing personal accounts on Camilleri, a former Labour appointee turned critic of the government.

In a blog post, Gafà addressed Camilleri: “Prepare a coffee because I’m going to pay you a visit for a chat… they’ve exposed where you live. You should never have trusted them. Did you not realise your mistake?”

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Camilleri does not live in Malta, and has made his whereabouts a secret despite blogging regularly on Maltese current affairs.

“The Slavs who live in the same Latin country as yourself send their regards... They’re interested in your writing. It’s a shame that you write against them,” Gafà wrote on his website.

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Camilleri has written on his blog that he had not been contacted by the police despite the visible threat made by Gafà. “It was their choice to do nothing, despite witnessing a crime and someone publicly stating their willingness to commit a crime.”

PEN Malta said it would not turn a blind eye to threats directed at journalists, authors, artists and activists and is appealing to the police to investigate the case. Expressing solidarity with Camilleri, it reminded the authorities that Gafà had previously been charged in court for threatening an Italian journalist, Nello Scavo, in the past.

Apart from being a visible ally of Keith Schembri, Muscat’s former chief of staff and intimate friend of Yorgen Fenech, Gafà acts as an agent provocateur on Facebook and Twitter, supporting an array of right-wing and far-right causes, and expressing support for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.