Updated | Pullicino Orlando substantiates accusations against Cachia Caruana

Adds Joe Mizzi's comments at 12:06pm

In reply to the request by the president of the Nationalist Party's executive to give a detailed explanation of his accusations against Richard Cachia Caruana,, MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando explained that Cachia Caruana exerted pressure on former Labour minister Joe Mizzi to replace the head of the Security Services.

Pullicino Orlando also revealed "Joe Mizzi has implicated Mr. Cachia Caruana in a clear case of criminal interference with the course of justice in relation to a cocaine party organised by individuals who were close to Mr. Cachia Caruana."

Cachia Caruana has not replied to these accusations as of yet. Earlier this week, the former permanent representative to the EU swiftly retorted accusations that he had opposed Air Malta's decision to buy a fleet of new aircraft and set up a subsidiary company.

Yesterday, the president of the PN's executive committee Marthese Portelli informed Pullicino Orlando that he had failed to give a detailed explanation of his accusations against Richard Cachia Caruana.

Portelli told Pullicino Orlando in an email copied to the press, that the MP's accusations against the former permanent representative to the EU are not explained in a clear and detailed enough manner to allow Cachia Caruana formulate his defence.

In his reply sent this morning, Pullicino Orlando told Portelli "You will appreciate that it is difficult to compress the testimony of each witness into a few paragraphs. That was why I had suggested two sittings of the PN Executive Committee to begin with."

The Zebbug MP explained that he had imagined that the first sitting would deal with the accusations and the second would be reserved for the 'defence'.

In his email which was copied to the press, Pullicino Orlando said that Cachia Caruana "tried to exert, via a high-ranking member of the 1996-1998 Labour administration, pressure on Hon. Mizzi who was effectively the Minister of the Interior in those days to replace the head of the Security Services for personal reasons."

The MP added that "Mizzi has implicated Mr. Cachia Caruana in a clear case of criminal interference with the course of justice in relation to a cocaine party organised by individuals who were close to Mr. Cachia Caruana."

Pullicino Orlando also provided a link to Mizzi's declarations on public television to substantiate this claim.

The MP also listed a third instance where Cachia Caruana colluded with the then Labour government to supply him "with security officials for protection due to an assassination attempt on Mr. Cachia Caruana a few years earlier which was unrelated to his official position but was simply a case of personal vendetta."

In his concluding remarks, Pullicino Orlando said that he will be amplifying on the testimony of his other witnesses in separate e-mails.

In contrast with the Karmenu Vella case, Richard Cachia Caruana has not yet issued a statement in reply to the accusations leveled at him by Mizzi.

On Wednesday, former Labour minister Karmenu Vella issued a statement describing how in 1996, Cachia Caruana, then a director of Air Malta, met him and told him he disagreed with the other members of the board when they decided that the airline should buy RJ70 aircraft. A few minutes later Cachia Caruana issued a statement to deny that he ever met with Vella. Cachia Caruana said "Mr Vella can take as many affidavits as he likes but that will not turn a fabrication into the truth."

Mizzi first mentioned the three cases involving Cachia Caruana on Labour's One television on Thursday.

On the alleged interference in the police investigation on a cocaine party on a yacht, Mizzi explained that the police investigators boarded "the wrong yacht."

Talikng to MaltaToday, Mizzi insisted that after probing the case, it is clear that this "wasn't a genuine mistake" and added that he has spoken about this case in Parliament on a number of occasions.

Pullicino Orlando voted with the Opposition in a motion of no-confidence that led to the resignation of Cachia Caruana, a chief PN strategist, from the post of permanent representative to the EU, a move which yesterday culminating in his official ban from the PN ticket.

The MP said he will be convening Commissioner of Police John Rizzo, EU Commissioner and former PN minister John Dalli, and the Prime Minister's head of communications Gordon Pisani to corroborate his accusation that Cachia Caruana "fomented unrest which led to the difficulties faced by Lawrence Gonzi, within the party and in Parliament."

Labour MPs Karmenu Vella and John Mizzi will also be convened as witnesses to substantiate his accusation that Cachia Caruana colluded with high-ranking members of the Alfred Sant administration between 1996 and 1998 "in an attempt at furthering his personal interests whilst putting his colleagues in the Nationalist administration led by Dr Eddie Fenech Adami between 1987 and 1996 in a bad light."

Pullicino Orlando has also accused Cachia Caruana of having colluded with foreign, high-ranking officials to bypass the PN parliamentary group and the House of Representatives - ostensibly over the reactivation of Malta's participation in Partnership for Peace in 2008, which was the subject of the Opposition motion that cost the former ambassador his Brussels post.

On Tuesday, the PN executive committee will be re-convening to hear the evidence presented by Pullicino Orlando against Cachia Caruana, who will in turn be given an opportunity to defend himself.

This week Pullicino Orlando said that he will be presenting and preparing detailed evidence at Tuesday's meeting and said "I have no doubt that the PN executive will have no alternative but to expel Richard Cachia Caruana."

MaltaToday is informed that the PN's executive committee president Marthese Portelli will be contacting the five witnesses mentioned by Pullicino Orlando over the weekend and ask them to appear in front of the party's executive meeting on Tuesday.

Portelli is currently away on holiday, however she will have to cut it short and return to Malta to preside over Tuesday's meeting.