Norman Vella petitions the courts to order the police to relinquish his mobile phone and tablet which they have abusively sequestered and retained
This is the press statement released by his lawyers, Karol Aquilina and human rights specialist Therese Comodini Cachia. You can read the actual petition here: Rikors ta’ Norman Vella 28102013
Stqarrija għall-mezzi tax-xandir
Norman Vella jitlob lill-Qorti tordna r-rilaxx tal-mobile u tablet proprjetà tiegħu
Mehmuż għandkom issib rikors li ppreżenta Norman Vella fil-Qorti aktar kmieni llum wara nofsinhar u li permezz tiegħu talab li l-Qorti tordna r-rilaxx tal-mobile u t-tablet proprjetà tiegħu u li ġew konfiskata b’mod abbużiv u llegali mill-Pulizija lbieraħ filgħaxija.
Fir-rikors għal darb’oħra Norman Vella jiċħad bl-aktar mod kategoriku li huwa ħa ritratt ta’ Kurt Farrugia u Ramona Attard fl-Ajruport Internazzjonali ta’ Malta u jispjega kif il-Pulizija ma sabet l-ebda ritratt fil-mobile jew fit-tablet tiegħu.
Ir-rikors kien iffirmat mill-Avukati Dr Therese Comodini Cachia u Dr Karol Aquilina.
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We’re on track for 1971-1987.
Allahares idumu dawk is-snin kollha
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131028/local/norman-vella-in-court-application-to-get-phone-tablet-back-from-police.492307#.Um5s6FMueV4
Norman Vella should be compensated for suffering this abuse.
… and whoever ordered to be arrested and/or physically executed the arrest of Norman Vella should be summarily suspended from the Police Force as all the members of the force are expected to:
1. know the law and consequently are well aware that such an accusation is not an offence, let alone a criminal offence where only in the latter case is arrest allowed at law;
2. know the Constitutional rights of the average citizen.
So Kurt Farrugia is not featured in any photos after all……maybe he went to buy some “fun-size” chocolates.
I’m so glad that Joe “Peppi” Azzopardi is once again standing up for human rights and the rule of law. He is one noble individual.
Yes and Lou Bondi is busy uploading pictures of guitars and baby bottles on Facebook. What’s stopping him from starting a fresh commentary? He is not a TVM presenter anymore and therefore there’s no conflict.
Screw Where’s Everybody. What I really want to know is where is the PN?
If they do not make themselves heard now, then they may forever stay silent as far as I am concerned.
I dunno. Ask Lawrence Gonzi. You people were always praising him to high heaven and look what the party’s come to.
Not me, Baxxter. I have not had anything nice to say about Gonzi since 2005 and have definitely made lots of negative comments since my return to Malta in 2007 when a downhill trend was already clearly visible and soon to be evidenced in 2008.
Although I voted PN in 2008 and in 2013, I did so only out of a sense of self preservation, knowing that Malta would be in better hands under their stewardship. Better hands, does not mean good hands, it simply implies that I preferred the lesser of two evils.
At reunions with family or friends, most of whom are staunch Nationalist, I was often called ungrateful and accused of taking the PN and Lawrence Gonzi for granted. Some even believed that my dislike for Gonzi even meant that I would be voting Labour.
Truth be said, Gonzi was the better replacement for Fenech Adami, who was a great leader in the face of political adversity, but was past his due date in 2004. Again, better implies that he was the lesser of the two evils (think Dalli evil as the other alternative) and definitely, the only ace up the PN’s sleeve at the time.
However, since Malta’s accession to the EU, Gonzi failed to do anything other than administer the benefits of EU membership. And for all the benefits that were indeed administered, that is the point, at which the PN lost its real political raison d’etre and became a caretaker.
It rested on its laurels, boasted about the ‘certificates’ that it was receiving, stopped looking after itself, its people, the electorate, and it lost the plot. It’s been downhill for them ever since. Ever since 2008, the 2013 results were a dead cert, and Gonzi did nothing to change that.
I see you and I understand each other. Especially the bit about being labelled a Laburist just because you criticise Gonzi.
Lawrence Gonzi built an extremely dangerous environment around him, where loyalty was equated with fawning praise, sometimes to the detriment of the truth. Anything else and you were a Labour voter. Or worse, anti-patriotic.
I’m glad he’s gone. Simon Busuttil may have many faults but he is not seen as the Messiah by the grassroots and the party hierarchy. Good. There are no Salvaturi in politics. It’s hard, sheer, bloody graft all the way. It’s bad enough that we have political dynastic families (the Demarcos, the Mifsud Bonnicis and the Fenech Adamis).
Biex nigu ezatt bhan-1980s kulma baqa’ hu li nittorturaw lin-nies fid-depot tal-pulizija, xejn izjed.
Le, jibqa’ li johorgu nies mejtin mid-depot.
Truth always prevails. Keep strong Norman and may God stand with you and your family in these hard times. I’m sure that all people of goodwill are behind you and condone the fascist treatment that you went through yesterday.
I have grown to admire Dr Comodini Cachia for her clarity of mind. Calm and collected and extremely articulate she is definetly a PN stalwart in the making.
Why did he give them the phone if they had no authority to take it?
[Daphne – Because we are raised to have an intrinsic cooperative response to the police. But the fact is that those who know they are in the right should NOT cooperate with the police, because they make the abuse of power much easier. The law is on their side in this matter, even if the process is painful.]
If he gave it freely then he made a big booboo. I thought after the warning he said Muscat gave him, he would have been on the alert and ‘lawyered up’.
I honestly don’t see why all this fuss,
Since when are the police forbidden from holding a person for questioning, if they think that a crime has been commited.
If it results that Norman did nothing wrong I’m sure he the police will not carry the matter forward and end of story.
[Daphne – Taking photographs in a restricted area is not a crime. Crimes are not what the police decide, but what the law says.]
Mr Loporto, the police did not think that a crime was committed.
Someone else decided so and alerted the police. And the police in all their wisdom proceeded to arrest Mr Vella. How about someone inventing something against you and you find the police knocking on your door and arresting you?
I don’t trust the police. Mr Vella should never have handed over his phone and tablet, especially when he had no guarantee that they would be sealed.
Ironic that tonight fat cat Mallia will be championing the gay marriage bill as a civil right just when he and his puppets started arresting innocent people and taking their property for no lawful reason.
These people must have a complete lack of empathy for their fellow man. If they do good, they only do so to increase their personal wealth and power. Gonzi might have been a chump but my goodness he outshone these wankers every day of the week.
Is the Ombudsman taking a siesta? Can I be arrested for thinking that?
Understandably, Norman is focusing on the fact that the investigation is groundless because he took no photos. Nevertheless, what if he or anybody else, had? The police would still have had no grounds on which to interrogate him. There are many, many things to criticise about these 7 months of Labour, but the total take-over of the security apparatus is the scariest of all.
Do you believe George Vella when he says he has no idea if the U.S. are spying on us?
Since when one cannot take a photo of a public official anyway? Is it a crime to use a camera now?
Min hemm wara dan l-allegat frame-up jista jkun aktar interessat f’dak li hemm fil-mobile u t-tablet ta’ Norman Vella milli tar-ritratti li huwa allegat li ha.
Il-hobz kulhadd minn halqu jieklu hlief ic-cwiec tal-Labour li qamu jghatu gharukaz. Kemm ghad baqa nies boloh.
It’s worrying but sometimes you have to smile.
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https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1385727_522659434491331_1882402740_n.jpg
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I am really sorry for what happened to Norman Vella. I hope that he wins this and is compensated financially for what happened to him.
But something good came out of all this.
Now everyone, including those who do not read your blog, know that Kurt Farrugia and Ramona Attard went out of the country together.
H.P. Baxxter, are you pulling our leg or is it a fact that Peppi Azzopardi is now standing up to be counted. I think that Peppi is now more concerned that Xarabank is not weeded out of TVM.
[Daphne – That remark was ironic.]
Don’t be deceived. Labour will not knock off all the programs of Where’s Everybody. Not in one go at least. All in harmony with their pseudo liberal policy.
They do it just the same but gradually and over time.
You’re wrong. Xarabank is Labour’s greatest asset. Peppi Azzopardi finished the idiotification that Mintoff started. As long as there’s Xarabank, there will be idiocracy, and Labour will be the natural majority party.
In 1977 a group of Maltese students of Arabic were taken to Libya on holiday.The youngest student (12 years old) took some pictures of buildings in the main square and the camera was confiscated .That was under Gaddafi`s regime.The Maltese authorities are doing much worse because no pictures were takenby Norman.Another frame up Pietru pawl style.
Not so fast with that rikors, Aquilina & Comodini. The phone and tablet need to be thoroughly scanned. You never know what a fishing expedition might unearth. Anything dispelling the need for El Manos to publicly condemn his Keystone non-starters is definitely a starter.