I’ll bet they knew who it was
The Times today carries a story about a man who laments the fact that, 29 years after his elderly mother was knocked down on a zebra crossing in front of several witnesses on a June evening in Hamrun, dragged for a kilometre by the hit-and-run driver, and left for dead, he still does not know who did it because the police never found the person involved.
Oh, I’ll bet they did. Many people saw the car. This was 1984. What probably did happen is that they found the driver (or, at least, the owner of the car) and thought it best to let ‘investigations’ stop right there.
That’s the way things happened back then, in Karmenu Vella’s legendary Golden Years.
That same year, I went to the Valletta police station to file a report against the driver of car X, number plate Y, who was parked in the middle of the road on Merchant Street, outside the Foreign Ministry, leaning out of the window and bantering with Alex Sceberras Trigona’s (he was then foreign minister) thugs, indifferent to the other drivers waiting behind him.
Those drivers included me, right behind him. When I put my hand on the horn and asked him to get a move on, he put his car into reverse and rammed mine, smashing the front, then sped off.
When I went to the police with my report, the sergeant at the desk was all alacrity until he looked up the number-plate. Then he blanched. “Look,” he said, “for your own safety and ours I’m not even going to write down your report, because we won’t be able to proceed on it anyway, and you’ll end up with a bomb on your doorstep. That was X, a notorious criminal. Just drop it. Even if you want to proceed, we won’t allow you.”
I’d say much the same thing happened with that poor woman’s death, except that because there was such a horrible death involved, the victim’s son wasn’t given the name of the perpetrator, as I was for something much less serious and because that particular sergeant was concerned for my safety besides his own.
I dropped it – it was only a car bumper, and I was 19. But you don’t drop it when what’s involved is the horrid death of your parent. Had that woman’s children been given the name of the driver, they would have insisted on pursuing the case. I’d say the police had the name, but kept it under wraps and hoped the problem would go away, which it did – for them, but not for her children.
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A bit like the desaparecidos.
There’s people in this cabinet who would have had access to the name at the time.
Perhaps Manuel Liberta’ Mhedda Mallia would like to have a look at the files.
Those days are here again, after all they have a strong mandate of 36,000 votes. A dovish PN leader and the rest is obvious.
My thoughts exactly.
In one of those golden days, I was punched on the face by a minister (now dead, may he rest in peace). I filed a report at the police station. But of course . . .
From the way things are happening I really think we are going to live the eighties again.
Il-Kexkux should have Mifsuds as relatives.
The same happened to me when a bomb was exploded on my doorstep at the instigation of an MLP Minister that I named during the enquiry by the court-appointed explosives expert.
I was urged and begged for my own safety not to insist on identifying the Minister. I rejected the advice, andI was instructed to hold myself in readiness to be summoned by the Police Inspector i/c but I was never called to “assist the police”. Eventually the culprit died and was buried with his “heart of gold”.
Again. I fail to understand.
Why wasn’t action taken between 1987-1996 and 1998-2013?
I explained why in the last paragraph. Because the good God had called the MLP minister “with the heart of gold” to his side and no one can extradite him from the nether regions.
A Labour Minister who died before 1987 then?
Weber, seems like you were not living in Malta in those days
In 1987, the atmosphere would’ve been tense. The police were a tool of the MLP. The Law Courts had been ransacked. How do you proceed in that environment? You need the police and courts to play on the side of justice – that wouldn’t happen today, let alone in 1987.
It’s regretful that not more was done, but PN clearly felt that there were other priorities that challenging a fragile democracy.
I was in Malta. I am not aware of a Labour minister who DIED before 1987. A minister who died in office?
Who was he?
[Daphne – Oh come on. Danny Cremona. And Patrick Holland.]
And who does not remember in those days all the jokes and mockery cited about the infamous ‘heart of gold’? ‘Heart of gold’ my foot.
@ Min Weber
Either you were not living in Malta then or else you are young of age not to conclude who was the Minister from the phrase ‘heart of gold’.
Yes, I was still a teenager in the 80s and my parents did shield me from a lot of things that were going on at the time.
@Weber
You mean you were brainwashed by parents to “see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing”, Therefore you shouldn’t be saying anything now because you have been brought up with that handicap.
I had a car stolen. It was one of three defined colours of that particular type on the market. A car appeared: same model, different colour from the other three.
I followed it, identified it as mine. Police and insurance weren’t interested in following up details handed in to them since a notorious Valletta gang had it.
No action by police, but I did get my insurance reimbursement, in full.
No, sorry. This is warped reasoning.
Why didn’t anyone give them the name between 1987 and 1996 and 1998 and 2013?
Because there is such a thing as “prescription” which starts to run from the time the crime becomes known to the police, even when they pretend to “see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing” like the proverbial monkeys. Prescription does not start to tun from the time of a change of government. Not to mention that the police at the time were more concerned with framing innocent people, beating up and killing suspects in custody as well as destroying evidence rather than preserving it for later governments to prosecute.
Prescription for murder is 30 years – which is why this man raised the issue NOW, 29 years after the happening. He said it clearly: he wants to have a clean conscience … so this is his last-ditch effort.
But my question was: why wasn’t this man given the name of the murderer between 1987-1996 and/or 1998-2013?
Why were the Police reticent when the PN was in government?
The murder took place in 1984. If the murderer was someone protected by the Labour heavyweights – why wasn’t he brought to justice after 1987? Only three years had passed, so no issue of prescription here.
There are other issues. I think the younger generations should know the truth. If you know the truth, Dr Saliba, speak up!
How can you be sure that the name of the culprit is still in the files and was not destroyed? Most probably they do their best to cover their ass well.
That is another story altogether.
But the people who saw the culprit, or who heard the witnesses, did they erase their memories too?
@Min Weber
ghalfejn ha toqghod tpeclaq fil vojt tahseb li kieku ghandi provi cari ha noghqod idejja fuq zaqqi???? mhux xoghol il pulizija li ghanda Tinvestiga? dan taf x semmejt huw 1km u fi strada irjali il hamrun fejnhom iz zejjieka dawk li huma mohhom fin nies ????????????
il kaz kien fin 1984 derli li sal 1987 kellu ilun solvut
ma ghandekx ghalfejn qed tipruva iddahhal il politka?????????
meta jien qas biss semmejta? tippruvax id dahhal lil hadd fin nofs fejn ma tafx ahajr ma tikkumentax tkompliex tiftahli il ferita j alla li hadd ma jghaddi min dak li ghaddejt jien tul hajti