Just listen to the sound of the Police Commissioner frantically back-pedalling on Dalli
Times of Malta reports the Police Commissioner’s words today, when he was asked about whether his men will be looking at Dalli’s Bahamas trip:
“We are looking into these latest claims in light of our voluminous investigation file on the case,” Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit said, adding that the police investigation had never really been closed.
“The investigation was never closed. We only close an investigation when there is a final court sentence. When I commented on the position of Mr Dalli in June, I had said that we felt there was not sufficient evidence to substantiate charges against him,” he noted.
The police were not aware of the trip and neither was the EU’s anti-fraud agency (OLAF), which conducted the original investigation that forced Mr Dalli’s resignation in October.
Really? That’s not what they said then, was it. If the investigation was never closed, what we have is a situation where the prime minister has given an executive position in his government, and a position of personal trust, to a man still under investigation by the Malta Police.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130704/local/Police-looking-into-Dalli-s-Bahamas-trip.476483
Without proof, what’s different?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130608/local/no-criminal-case-against-john-dalli-police-commissioner.473049
When Police Commissioner P. P. Zammit said that there is not enough proof for A CRIMINAL CASE against former Health Commissioner John Dalli, Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit was not saying that he did not have any proof whatsoever. He meant that the police did not have the necessary evidence to prove the case beyond any reasonable doubt as would be demanded in the Criminal Court.
As a matter of fact this case also highlights the incompetence of the new Police Commissioner (or maybe it’s the backbone, attributes and morals that are missing)
A “backbone” wasn’t ever a desirable quality in a Commissioner of Police, appointed during an MLP government, and necessary to ensure a long and distinguished career as Malta’s enforcer of law and order without fear or favour.
At this point the situation seems bad no matter how you take it. Either the case against Dalli really was closed – in which case justice gave way to base politics or the Police did not do their work – or else the PM chose a man under investigation for a position of authority and trust.
They’re digging their graves pretty deeply.
Ha nghidlek, kellhom ragun li n-Nazzjonalisti kienu ghajjew.
Dawn ghaffgu aktar fi tlett xhur milli GonziPN f’disa’ snin.
X’qed jistenna Joseph biex iqacctu minn mieghu. Isn’t he feeling embarrassed by all Dalli’s lies?
Hawwadni ha nifmek…
Daphne, to be fair with the Commissioner, I believe the Commissioner is right here about what he had said.
In any case, the proof of what he says can be checked to an interview with Reno Bugeja on Dissett, around one month ago – should be 8 June. I watched that program, and in it Zammit had said that at this point he did not have sufficient evidence on which to prosecute. To me, this means that if new evidence comes up, or if someone, say tal-Imqaret, comes forward to witness against Dalli, then the Police could reconsider their decision.
The Commissioner (or the Attorney General) never exhonerated Dalli as not guilty, as suggested by Marlene Mizzi, who incidentally happens to be married to a Judge of the court. It is only a court of law which can exhonerate someone from a crime, although one remains innocent until proven guilty. The Commissioner only said that he did not have sufficient evidence to proceed. This in itself does not exclude that evidence against Dalli may exist, but that it is not in the hands of the Police at this time.
This is also confirmed in media reports like the one below.
However, you will see how it was John Dalli himself, in a statement which he issued, who made the version of the Commissioner look like a closure of the case.
“The statement issued by the Police Commissioner is a closure of a malevolent and defamatory case in my regard, which has damaged Malta’s image worldwide…”
Event the title of this piece is misleading. It should say “Police do not have sufficient evidence to proceed against Dalli” – which better reflects what the Commissioner had said.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/No-case-against-John-Dalli-Police-Commissioner-20130608
Is Dissett still available online?
Still the present Police Commissioner should have called John Dalli to the Police HQ for questioning as the other Commissioner John Rizzo intended to do.
But we must remember that John Rizzo was replaced just to have a government puppet at the Police HQ.
It would have been funny if it weren’t tragic.
Gvern gdid Laburista ….. tal wahhhhhx!
Blame Godfrey
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130617/local/Health-Minister-behind-decision-to-recruit-Dalli.474167
Well first they declared ‘insufficient evidence’ then a few days later declared a politically pressured ‘case closed’. Who in the police force is a tea boy for Dalli?
Following the Bahamas revelations, an important question becomes even more crucial : Why did John Dalli feel the need to inform Joseph Muscat, then Leader of the Opposition, that he had been forced to resign as Commissioner?
Correct me if I am wrong but Dalli travelled to the Bahamas the day after he got to know he was being investigated and just days before he was forced to resign.
Did Dalli have anything to say to Muscat about his trip to the Bahamas or, more pertinently, about a transfer of funds?
Unless either Muscat or Dalli come clean about the phone call, people will speculate. The theories that emerge does not make either of them look good.
The OLAF report suggests Dalli could have known about the investigation as early as 18th June.
In a previous post (He who sups with the devil…etc) I said this:
That strange phone call on 16th October 2012 at 5.00pm Brussels – Hamrun.
When I read it this morning that’s what I thought. I think the gist of the Commissioner’s statement about Dalli a couple of weeks ago was that practically he’s innocent and case is closed, though he didn’t say that exactly.
It is also highly pertinent to point out that the commissioner never said that Dalli is innocent, but their is “not sufficient evidence to substantiate charges against him.” Which is completely different.
Little Joey’s new slogan: ‘Devided We Stand.’
Check that, was using Labour’s spell check.
‘Divided We Stand.’
The PN is not much better than the PL with regard to John Dalli. Both parties are equally wrong.
Surely P.P. Zammit should regret the interview he gave to a German broadcaster. Unwise and premature words indeed.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Kessler-should-have-been-kicked-out-of-office-Police-Commissioner-20130614
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130702/local/dalli-tells-meps-will-not-be-intimidated-from-pursuing-kessler-the-commission-and-the-tobacco-lobby.476343
“Mr Dalli reiterated that he never had any bank accounts in the Bahamas.
“I am prepared to give a power of attorney to a trusted individual to make all the checks with any or all the banks in the Bahamas to verify this,” he said.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130215/local/austin-gatt-asks-police-commissioner-to-investigate-ubs-account.457651
“Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt has today written to the Police Commissioner asking him to investigate a Swiss bank account held by him to ensure that it was not connected with any criminal activity, particularly the on-going Enemalta investigation.
Dr Gatt reiterated that apart from this account and the other accounts and investments included in his Parliamentary declaration of assets, he and his wife do not own or hold any other property, monies, investments or accounts in any part of the world in their own name, or through third parties or nominee companies, trusts or vehicles.
Opposition leader Joseph Muscat is insisting that the fact that Dr Gatt had forgotten to declare the Swiss account dented his credibility.”
By Muscat’s standards Dalli’s credibility is dented.
Austin Gatt asked the police commissioner himself to verify that his inherited fund was above board, while John Dalli wants someone whom he trusts to investigate.
I think the police should call Dalli and ask him directly wether he has any trust funds in the Bahamas and if they find any undeclared monies they will end up in Malta’s coffers.
The only ‘trusted person’ I can trust, should be an investigative team comprising OLAF, Malta Police, a magistrate and the secret service(Ideally Daphne should be in the team).Anything less would just be a whitewash.
More to come out for sure. Expect a busy summer.
I think it would be appropriate for Simon Busuttil to give a clear message and ask Dalli to resign from the PN until he is cleared of all wrong doing.
And sod the ‘innocent till proven guilty’ bit. Others had been asked to resign while investigations were ongoing or Court proceedings were not yet concluded.
I say this assuming that he’s still is a Member of the PN.
NO COMMENT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwIxX2Oja28
Joseph Muscat has sacked or transferred all professional and competent persons at decision-taking levels. He has replaced those persons with brown-nosed dilettantes and inept opportunists.
Joseph Muscat is now being hoist by his own wide-ranging selection of petards. And it can only get worse as the situation deteriorates and new crises come up.
The man does not add up to much at best, and he has made certain that he has nothing and no one to fall back on when the situation gets really dirty, as it will.
Here is what the Commissioner had said about the Dalli case on Dissett.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130608/local/no-criminal-case-against-john-dalli-police-commissioner.473049
For the benefit of those who comment on Times of Malta, this does not mean that:
1. The Police did not have the right to investigate the case
2. The Police did not have the right to interrogate Mr. Dalli.
3. Dalli was ‘exhonerated.’ He has simply not been put under a criminal process.
Yet, under our legal system, one remains innocent until proven guilty.
Innocent enough to be assigned a position of trust and authority when under a progressively darkening cloud of suspicions? He certainly would not have been accepted by Caesar – not even as a wife let alone as an under the counter Minister of Health.
He may well not have been accepted by Caesar, but he was accepted into God’s house for a thanksgiving mass of exoneration.
Oh no, I did not say that – I think I commented about his position with the government of Malta elsewhere. He must resign from that position asap. He has lost the public’s trust.
But this is the political side of things, and is the same argument why Barroso was right to demand his resignation.
It’s better in the Bahamas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlTJCei1Pvk&feature=youtu.be
What is taking so long for Muscat to cut Dalli loose?
Obviously, Dalli is a liability so why is Muscat so willing to give him a prominent role in his government?
The Police Commssioner’s statement on John Dalli’s case made soon after his appointment shows, in my humble opinion, either some strong political pressure exerted at time of taking office (certainly political intervention) or sheer immaturity, naivete and dishonesty that resulted in serious lack of credibility in the work done by the police on those volumes of files.
The timing of that statement was suspiciously quicker than in normal cases.
His role is to serve justice and preserve order. The worst was the disrespect towards the Maltese people at large who the Commissioner assumes are imbecile. I lost trust in police investigatory work, with all due respect.
It is not hard to understand why the Police Commissioner would assume (wrongly) that many Maltese voters could be imbeciles when at the recent general election 36000 switchers thought that Joseph Muscat’s movement would be an improvement on the previous government. Now everybody, and their dogs, know it but the clock can’t be put back any time soon.
The Police Commissioner , Peter Paul Zammit is inconsistant. First he exonerted John Dalli from wrong doing due to lack of evidence. He also passed remarks against Giovanni Kessler, Head of OLAF in the sense that Kessler should have been kicked out of office. Now, that there is new evidence of John Dalli’s embezzlement the Commissioner of Police said that even Kessler was unaware about them.
I doubt the Commissioner of Police has even read the OLAF report. It was compiled with the help of evidence obtained by the Maltese police.
If he has actually read it, then the statements he made mark him down as an appalling deadbeat in my book.
Friggin shameful. Bring back the Nationalists asap – not even half a year in government and this country has been driven to the ground. Did you hear Muscat’s threats to the EU re being given assistance for illegal immigration?