“She’s threatening me”

I think it’s time to remind my readers (and a few politicians) that when, back in January, I leaned over to the Minister of Health and Energy in court, just after a hearing had been concluded, and said to him quietly, “Your lawyers are very keen to defend you. Have you told them the truth about where you’re hiding your money?”, he jerked up startled, reached out for his lawyer Pawlu Lia’s arm and cried out, “She’s threatening me.”

He did not look at me blankly. He did not say, “What the hell are you on about?” and he did not seek to set me straight.

“She’s threatening me,” he said. Everybody who was in the courtroom at the time, including the magistrate, can confirm this. In fact, there was a to-do after that in which I said to the magistrate that no, actually I wasn’t threatening him, and why didn’t the Minister simply repeat what I’d told him and demonstrate to the court what had been said. But he refused to do that and stopped his lawyer from asking me to repeat it myself.

Then we both got told off by the magistrate for behaving in an unbecoming fashion.

The point here is that he’s obviously got money hidden somewhere, otherwise he wouldn’t have had that visceral, unthinking and defensive reaction.

And the interesting thing is that I didn’t know where he’s hidden his money, but the bluff worked because he clearly thought I did.

I asked him whether he’d told his loyal lawyers where he’s hidden his money, and he reacts by calling them over and saying, “She’s threatening me.”