JOHN DALLI IS BACK IN MALTA – ghax issa Malta Taghna Lkoll and the Police Commissioner has been removed

Published: April 12, 2013 at 8:32pm

John Dalli

He was at the Corinthia Palace in Attard this evening, in a meeting with Corinthia chairman Alfred Pisani. Suspect nothing untoward about the context, please: Dalli worked for the Corinthia Group when he was in Opposition in 1996-1998.

He obviously felt safe coming back to Malta now, not only because his friend Joseph Muscat is now the prime minister, but more pertinently because Police Commissioner Rizzo, the man investigating him, has been removed from office.

We knew he would be removed from office – the clue was John-Dalli-and-Labour-friendly Malta Today’s calls for his removal/resignation.

Viva Malta Taghna Lkoll, insomma. Way to go – and it’s only been a month.

But let’s be kind: we should at least be happy, at the humane level, that Dalli is now fit enough to fly, though we don’t yet know whether his psychiatrist has written yet another note saying that he can’t face the ‘psycho-social’ pressures of police investigation and facing trial.




39 Comments Comment

  1. H.P. Baxxter says:

    How was the trip? Any problems? Food all right? Not too salty I trust?

    • alf says:

      I just hope he did not visit the dental clinic this morning because of something wrong with the food.

    • Cittadin Malti says:

      Travelled in Bi-snus class. Fine food, served with Libyan vin-de-cation. Found copy of 50 Shades of Grey in seat pocket in front of me.

  2. Harry Purdie says:

    And the hits just keep on coming. Every week more blatant.

  3. Dave says:

    Sickening.

  4. TinaB says:

    Kollox mahdum bizzilla.

    What some of us predicted about Labour in government, long before the general election campaign, is now all coming true.

  5. Giraffe says:

    He may replace Karmenu Vella on the Corinthia Group Board.

    • Min Jaf says:

      Probably. Also taking into account the J Dalli BA’s long established connections in Libya, where Corinthia Group has direct commercial interests.

      • Maria Xriha says:

        One wonders where the connections and 4th floor business links begin and end. How many interconnecting doors does this suite have? ROI?

  6. Alexander Ball says:

    Don’t the police want to arraign him?

    Which police station should I go to and report he is back in the country?

    Or shouldn’t he have been arraigned upon arrival?

    I’m confused.

  7. Stephen Borg Fiteni says:

    Why are Labour protecting him? What do they have to gain from him?

  8. bob-a-job says:

    Dedicated to all those back home

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYW9NmmiuOg

  9. GiGi says:

    I sincerely hope the investigation proceeds, but even if it were to proceed, with an ex-criminal lawyer as Minister of Justice, his buddy as police commissioner, and Dalli’s ‘payday’ from all his Super One appearances, one can’t even hope for justice to be done.

  10. rupert says:

    Will the last person who leaves Malta please turn off the lights?

  11. gil says:

    Lucky guy. He has made a miraculous recovery. Lazarus, you may rise.

  12. edgar says:

    This is obscene. It was a well known fact that Rizzo was going to be replaced and it is very obvious that Dalli came exactly when Rizzo left the police force.

  13. maryanne says:

    The Police Commissioner has been removed but the police department is not a fiefdom. Justice must be done and the investigation that was going on has to continue, whoever is Commissioner.

    Would an accused in court be acquitted if the presiding judge retires or dies?

  14. Mesmes says:

    If he’s not arrested, the new Police Commissioner should resign. IMMEDIATELY.

  15. Gemini says:

    Kollox mahdum – vera Malta Taghna Lkoll. Daphne, you were right all the way. What’s next?

  16. Carmelo Micallef says:

    ‘pimps, thieves and scoundrels’

  17. dulciebelle says:

    Nothing to do with this post but perhaps this ought to be looked into. The report on Malta Independent on-line about the court sitting re the incident (with Zurrieq mayor) at Rabat, the date is quoted as the 29th of March – that was Good Friday. I thought that the incident happened on 19th March, the feast of St Joseph. Is this a relevant technicality that could sway the case?

    [Daphne – No, just a mistake in reporting.]

  18. rjc says:

    Another one who has risen from the dead.

    How fast Joseph’s miracles work.

  19. pazzo says:

    Everything happened as I predicted to my children before the election, assuming that LP comes to power.I who lived the socialist days know their stratagems and mark my words, this is only the beginning. Confound and confuse, then attack!

  20. My past comments in this “notebook”, critical of the role of the tobacco industry in the “Snus case”, were misinterpreted as a defence of John Dalli.

    With equal frankness I express my unease about the way Dalli’s absence from Malta coincided with the decision of the local police to take action against him in connection with this case.

    Still more disconcerting is the fact that his return to Malta fits neatly in the removal of the commissioner of police who had decided to initiate this action.

    Malta’s reputation, especially in the nations members of the EU, stands under scrutiny.

    Let the new administartion, prime minister, ministers, police officers and the courts bear this in mind.

    The rule of law and justice must prevail. The release of documents from the US embassy in Malta to Washington on Mintoff’s utter disregard of the rule of law in the 70s are a timely reminder that we must not return to those bad days.

    • Alexander Ball says:

      Too late.

      Malta is already seen as a corrupt little backend of beyond where the only ‘crime’ is to get caught.

    • Angus Black says:

      My understanding is that when the Police decided to lay charges upon Dalli’s arrival, the instructions would have followed after the Attorney General had reviewed the evidence.

      It therefore follows that the case ought to proceed irrespective of who the Commissioner happens to be.

      The State has the authority to proceed against an alleged wrongdoer and by the same token, the alleged wrongdoer has the right to defend himself.

      Any delay is unacceptable and has to be explained by both the new Commissioner and the Minister.

  21. stennejt ahjar says:

    You change a Commissioner and you instantly heal another one.

    I don’t think that John Dalli went to the airport and bought a ticket home. Was he informed of what was happening and when the change was going to take place?

    Is Saviour sick or something? MaltaToday has still not informed us of his return. They are more au courant with what the Greens are doing about the Dalligate in Europe than with what is happening in Malta.

    I would have thought that Saviour Balzan would be the first to be at the airport.

  22. taxxu says:

    ‘unfit to fly’ – imma sa kemm telgha Joseph fil-gvern, biss.

  23. mark says:

    Tajba din. Mela jekk tkun xhud f’xi kawza u ma titlax il-qorti johrog mandat t’arrest u multa tajba, imbaghad kaz serju bhal dan, Alla jbierek, is-Sur John Dalli mar jiekol u probabbli jiddiskuti ix-xoghol gdid tieghu il-Corinthia Palace. Mela, mhux hekk hux.

  24. Artemis says:

    If Labour continue to handle people like John Dalli with velvet gloves, they will rapidly lose their majority.

    Have people really got such short memories? There are too many questions and no answers when it comes to John Dalli.

  25. Randolph Peresso says:

    “John Dalli and his aides spent voting day calling people up here in Malta, urging them to ditch the PN and vote Labour. We here at this website in fact were the lucky recipients of one of these calls.”

    http://www.taghnalkoll.com/?p=445#sthash.ot9OW2AW.dpuf

  26. Darkwolf says:

    Am I the only one who thinks that Dalli’s return is more than just a bit more than perfect timing?

    Why does he believe that he can outrun justice? I tip my hat off to Mary Ann for her last line,
    “Would an accused in court be acquitted if the presiding judge retires or dies?”

    If he was suddenly fit enough to fly, he is fit enough to face trial.

  27. otto moll says:

    …and Silvio Zammit of imqaret fame is left to play solo violinist. I hope that in five years’ time the whole orchestra be made to play the whole musical score.

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