Police superintendent Carmelo Bartolo: an update
On 2 October, I published the following on this website:
Silvio Scerri’s ex wife lodges a report against him at the police station. The police officer who issued the charges is transferred.
Police superintendent Carmelo Bartolo, who was detailed to District 5 (Zejtun, Gudja, Hal Ghaxaq, Birzebbuga, Marsaxlokk, Zurrieq, Qrendi, Mqabba, Kirkop and Safi) has just been transferred to the St Julian’s station.
Some days ago, when Superintendent Bartolo was still working on District 5, Silvio Scerri’s ex wife went down to the station and filed a report against Scerri (and not for the first time, either). Bartolo took her report.
Scerri, for those who have just landed, is the Police Minister’s chief of staff.
Superintendent Bartolo nonetheless followed procedure and issued charges against him. Four days later he was transferred to St. Julian’s.
The woman who filed the report was not Silvio Scerri’s actual ex-wife (he does have one) but the mother of his two children. That detail, however, is by the by.
I have now received information that personnel at the Hal Far detention camp were, a few weeks ago, asked to “prepare a place” for Superintendent Bartolo who would soon be joining them there. The reaction was one of astonishment as there is no role for police officers, still less senior police officers, at the detention camps and no such officers have ever been stationed there.
I rang Ramona Attard at the Ministry of Home Affairs earlier today so as to double-check this information and she told me that she would in turn check with the relevant departments as these are not matters with which the ministry is involved directly. She duly rang back with the reply that Superintendent Bartolo is “still at the St Julian’s (Spinola Bay) police station”.
I must make it clear for reasons that should be obvious that none of this information came from Superintendent Bartolo himself, who I have never met and to whom I have never spoken – I don’t even know what he looks like – nor from anybody close to him, but from other sources in the police force and the army.
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What happened to the charges against Silvio Scerri?
What charges? (sic)
Who is Silvio Scerri?
@Ciccio: mela ma tafx minn hu!?
So the detention camp is becoming the PL’s way to “punish” officers who are honest and who their job well or who in anyway show an inclination towards the PN. It reminds one of Stalin’s exile of millions to the God forsaken Siberia.
It also shows what the government thinks of the immigrants locked up in the detention camp. Being with them is a punishment.
In the 70s, ‘Siberia’ was the term used for Bighi for PN leaning teachers. Nowadays this comparison can be used as you said.
Can anyone give us (younger generation) an insight on whether such instances happened under the previous administration? I am in my mid 30s and I truly cannot remember any such instances. With the political background that my family has, I would definitely have heard of such vindictive behavior non stop.
[Daphne – Definitely not. Not only were individuals not persecuted by the Nationalist government because of their political beliefs, but Labour supporters were promoted to high-ranking positions and given posts of trust. Even Mintoffians who had been appointed to key posts by earlier, Labour governments – like Marlene Mizzi at Sea Malta and Louis Grech at Air Malta – were kept on, despite their having got those posts through political connections rather than merit.
Also, please bear in mind that what we are speaking about here – Bartolo’s case – is far, far worse than the selection of individuals for abusive treatment because of their political beliefs. Police superintendent Bartolo is not being subjected to punitive treatment because of politics, but because he gave the order to file charges against the Police Minister’s chief of staff, Silvo Scerri, when a woman went to a station in his district to file a report against Scerri for violence against her.]
Thanks for clearing things up. For all I know, all of this is unbearable.
I would not imagine any other European country acting in such a manner.
No wonder North Korea is one of Labour’s favorite countries. Potential contenders/challengers are fed to the dogs… literally.
You missed Edward Scicluna at MFSA.
And Marlene Bonnici.
Young man, it was Labour in the 1970s that transferred me on a very, very regular basis because I outright refused to withdraw a case against two thugs who beat a constable while he was on duty.
I was surreptitiously instructed to drop the case. I stuck by my guns, and every time I wrote my refusal in the file the next day was my transfer day.
One transfer lasted only twenty minutes. I was transferred to Paola police station to start working there at 8a.m. the following day. I reported for duty at Paola. I asked the telephone operator for a cup of tea. He came back immediately telling me: “Sorry sir, the kettle is not ready but your transfer is”, and he showed me the teleprinter message.
Ultimately, my personal dossier file was opened, and an extract was sent to Hamrun police station instructing my Superintendent to order me, “an insubordinate, rebellious, disobedient, undisciplined officer”, to withdraw the case.
If any of these charges would have been proven I would have faced even life imprisonment. I stood my ground for I was in the right, and replied: “If the Commissioner has as much proof in his allegations as I have in this case which I am prosecuting, let him proceed in court as I did.”
Nothing happened except that I stood by my men even at my own expense at times. The greatest thing that happened was that THE TRUTH WON.
For what it’s worth, I have had professional dealings with this officer and I can understand why he doesn’t fit in with this lot in power because he is professional, conscientious, polite and extremely capable.
[Daphne – I have deleted your comment because, if you wish to make serious allegations against somebody, you should have the guts and the decency to make them in your own name instead of trying to use me as a parapet to hide behind, expecting me to take the flak on your behalf while you accuse somebody anonymously. Brave man, aren’t you, hiding behind a woman.]
Manwel Mallia and the newly appointed brigadier of the Armed Forces will be doing the rounds at Malta International Airport on Wednesday. I wonder why.
Perhaps they are expecting the European Parliament to order an invasion of Malta.
Some time back I did pass a comment on this blog to the effect that OUR POLICE OFFICERS SHOULD HAVE ENOUGHT PROTECTION AS TO FEEL UNSHACKLED IN THE EXECUTION OF THEIR DUTY. This I say out of experience.
My brother, who was in the police force in Mintoff’s time, was transferred so many times during the year that his wife kept a note of his last transfer just in case he was needed urgently.
I can confirm what Mr Pace said.
I remember that the name of Gejtu Pace was often in the news.