I sent a message to timesofmalta.com inviting you to read my reply to what Lino Spiteri wrote, in Malta Today, as The Times have decided not to publish it. Funny but even that has not come up so I might be black-listed.

So if anyone would be so kind as to update that site with a link to the Malta Today piece – if I do so it will probably not appear – it would be helpful.

So much for free press. Thank you.

I posted the above quotation as a comment here http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120426/business-comment/National-Bank-Group-saga.417154, together with a link to http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Grandson-of-former-National-Bank-chairman-takes-Lino-Spiteri-to-task-20120428.

Unfortunately, however, the relevant link did not appear under the quotation when my comment was put online on the Times of Malta portal, despite my having included it. I would like Jeremy Cassar Torregiani to know that I was not trying to take credit for his words, but was merely highlighting what he said.

Unfortunately, the link being left out of my comment by The Times may mislead whoever reads it into thinking that the words were my own.

I have just posted a comment to The Times about it, but wanted to clarify the matter here too..

I await in earnest The Times of Malta editorial board’s position on this very serious allegation.

They have to come up with a credible answer to disassociate themselves from the PL- MaltaToday tandem.

It seems that The Times of Malta is jockeying for position to either join this tandem or else, and that is even worse, to replace MaltaToday as one of the partners.

The Times is at present behaving, journalistically, like a reed swayed by the wind.

They seem to be terrified, at what was formerly Strickland House, of the certainty of an imminent PL government.

I wonder whether they are worried that their new state of the art premises might be ravished by an accidental fire.

Can this most scandalous case be taken to the European Court of Justice / Human Rights or the International Court of Justice? Especially when after 38 years no verdict has been forthcoming?

It was as if they were in acceptance of this travesty even if the law being passed ran counter to the constitution. As we both know the government in general was the net beneficiary of the Bank of Valletta so both sides profited from the theft.

What makes it worse is that the Nationalists had promised redress yet ignored the case once they had the power to address the situation.

As far as I know, no out of court settlement has even been seriously discussed although petitioned by shareholders for many years.

The only instance of a meeting being called to discuss it was about six years ago when the Chamber of Commerce asked the shareholders to pass a resolution to accept a sum of around 20 million euros.

In that meeting I urged the shareholders not to pass any resolution unless it was an offer that was made to them in writing, thereby making it an official offer. The resolution was passed that the offer would be considered if it was made to the shareholders by government in writing but not if it was made verbally through the Chamber of Commerce. From then on no more was heard of it.

Clearly all the government wanted was to contain the risk of a potential buyer to the amount agreed in the meeting only if and when the sale went through and the case was then decided in favor of the shareholders.

Re Malta today – my original letter was in reply to an article in the Times of Malta. I only copied it to Malta Today for journalistic cover never thinking that The Times would not publish it. Malta Today asked me if I objected to them publishing it and I did not.

The truth is that had it not been for Malta Today Lino Sipteri would not have been answered and his version would have remained undisputed.

We live in a country with limited free press and limited rule of law – this case exposes it and this is why it concerns us all.

I am reading quite a lot about our recent history and I do not seem to find anything which shows that the Pn accepted the situation. Indeed, at the time the party was still gearing up to fight Mintoiff’s regime and certainly it was still maturing.

One more question:why was an out-of-court settlement never reached, not even recently?

I refuse to comment directly on the Malta Today website because I boycott anyone who tries to earn money through axe-grinding, rumour-spreading and other despicable actions which can easily be attributed to Malta Today.

Ha Ha, Lino Spiteri is no slouch.

When he makes a fool of himself, it is only for a very well calculated political gain.

He will now lie low for a while.

Those who remember Lino Spiteri back in those daysknow that he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and not the reasonable moderate he masquerades as these days.

Come on Lino, time to shut me up.