MP deplores former AFM commander’s appointment to army injustices commission

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has deplored a decision by the Ministry of Home Affairs to appoint former Armed Forces of Malta commander Maurice Calleja to head a commission which will consider claims of injustices suffered by soldiers and officers.

Brigadier Calleja resigned his position in 1993 when his son Meinrad Calleja was charged with drug trafficking.

While insisting he did not want to go into the merits of Calleja's abilities as an army brigadier, Azzopardi asked whether he was "the most suitable person" for the job.

"This is a person [Calleja] who has an axe to grind. And that is putting it very mildly. This is a person with a huge chip on his shoulder and that's putting it very mildly. And the government now wants him to investigate injustices in the AFM," Azzopardi said in parliament on Monday evening.

Contacted by MaltaToday to clarify what he meant by his comments, Azzopardi failed to give a clear explaination, putting it vaguely that he was "referring to members of the Calleja family". He then went on to insist that the issue was the commission "undermined" the Ombudsman as an institution.

Over the past years, Brigadier Calleja served as a ballistic expert in the law courts.

He resigned from the army in 1993 when his son, Meinrad Calleja, faced drug-trafficking charges. Calleja's son was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.

In 1994, Meinrad Calleja was also accused of complicity in the attempted murder of Richard Cachia Caruana, then personal assistant to prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami. He was later acquitted in the ensuring trial by jury.

Azzopardi played down Manuel Mallia's justification that Calleja was a man of experience, noting there were many other army brigadiers with experience.

The appointment of the commission, the Opposition MP said, also undermined the position of the Ombudsman - an institution set up to receive complaints.

"Both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Home Affairs should declare whether the Ombudsman enjoys their trust or not. Because all this shows the contrary," Azzopardi claimed.

Azzopardi also argued that through the Ombudsman, members of the Armed Forces of Malta who felt they suffered justices could make their claims. Quoting from the 2009 and 2011 Ombudsman reports, Azzopardi said the number of complaints in connection with promotions in the AFM had gone down drastically.

"Thanks to the hard work of the Nationalist government, a new procedure was introduced which also led to a reduction in complaints. But with Maurice Calleja's appointment, the government is undermining the institution which is the Ombudsman," he said.

Azzopardi said following the revision, the number of complaints went down from 100 to 20 complaints.