Protest outside the PM’s office and the police will take you to a psychiatric hospital under arrest

Published: August 25, 2014 at 10:20am

mount carmel

This is a shocking story.

It recalls the time when a man tried to enter the Auberge de Castille, demanding to see PM Mintoff, and was manhandled by the police and locked up for years in the psychiatric hospital.

The police and the government then used their controlled media to say that he had tried to kill Mintoff.

Now we have this man, carrying out the sort of protest you see all the time everywhere in the civilised democratic world, arrested and his mental health questioned by the interrogating officers.

The police forcibly take him to a psychiatrist (twice) which is not their job and which they are not legally empowered to do, and the second psychiatrist gives in and commits the man to the psychiatric hospital for three days.

The ward psychiatrist then discharges him immediately he sees him.

A lot of people in Malta tend to be very poorly educated (and that includes the educated ones) so the full implications of what has happened here will wash right over their heads.

Put simply, it is in totalitarian states – yes, like China, but before that also in Iron Curtain Europe – that those who protest against the central authority in a single and independent manner by picketing with placards and similar are picked up by the police, accused of being crazy and committed to psychiatric care.

The police could have simply ordered him to move his car, which was badly parked. Had he been without a car, however, and merely standing there with a placard, they would have had no right to tell him to move along at all. He had every right to stand outside the prime minister’s office with his posters for as long as he pleased, even for months if he could stomach it.

Imagine if the British police were to start arresting every lone protestor at the gate to Downing Street and sending them to the psychiatrist under arrest.

And what are our august journalists doing? Throwing ice buckets over each others’ heads, like children in a paddling pool. And instead of demanding that the prime minister tells them why the protestor outside his office was harassed by the police and taken to a psychiatric hospital forcibly under arrest, they rush thoughtlessly and with giggling excitement to take up his calculated request that they dump a bucket of cold water over their heads.

I almost give up.




87 Comments Comment

    • P Bonnici says:

      Let’s not forget Daphne, that the PL inherited the same police force from the PN, these fail to reform the police force, they put the most useless man (Carm Mifsud Bonnici) in charge instead.

      This will continue, irrespective of who is in power, shame on Malta.

      • Ares says:

        Are you serious? The first acts of this government were the transfer of the commissioner of the police and a number of high ranking and honest policemen, the reolacement of these by puppets and the re-engagement of retired police offficers, most probably mostly PL supporters.

  1. Under Labour Anything Goes says:

    This is indeed a serious incident which has washed right over everybody’s heads.

    Malta is becoming a police state wherein the lines between the police and the Socialist government are already blurred to an extent that repressive control is being exercised, albeit subtly, over many aspects of social and political life.

    Do the people care? No, they do not because Malta has become a nation of hand-outs. Give people regular hand-outs and free entertainment and they won’t care about what’s going on around them.

    Sending someone who attempts to express his views to a psychiatric facility is not only alarming in itself, but equally demonstrates that expression is now being subject to police monitoring and enforcement.

    But our star journalists are too busy harassing an old man who had an accident, and with throwing buckets of water over each other.

  2. Mark says:

    The ice-bucket challenge – my thoughts exactly, Daphne. (And hats off to you for ignoring the challenge.) I’ve never seen people so united in their silliness.

    • J refalo says:

      When and where are you going to do the ice water bucket challenge?

      [Daphne – I’m not. I left the schoolyard in 1980, and the paddling pool in 1968, when I learned how to swim in the Big Sea.]

    • Kevin says:

      My thoughts exactly and it is catching on like wild fire.

      Everyone gets distracted from the more worrying news items such as this episode.

    • Willie Inatinovic says:

      The ice bucket challenge is a challenge filmed with a phone,in the most natural and amateurish way possible. Simon Busuttil did it the right way.

      The video productions featuring Joseph Muscat with Konrad Mizzi, the President and also Michelle Muscat and her husband were made with an HD camera and post produced, done in the Taghna Lkoll manner, fake and scripted and unnatural.

      Really, really soapy…

    • Joe Micallef says:

      On the subject of the ice bucket challenge, the counter argument of Times of Malta editor Steve Mallia to those lamenting the waste of water, is telling about the piths being reached by the paper.

      I’ll just quote. Any further comment is superfluous.

      “….and, as for those who decry the waste of water, maybe they can form a group to object to the island’s countless private swimming pools – or do they have one themselves?”

  3. Joe Fenech says:

    People need to wake up from their full-year hibernation and realise that Malta is now a dictatorship at par with China, Saudi and the rest.

    Where are the human right campaigners when you need them?

    • La Redoute says:

      Ma nesagerawx. Malta’s far below the standards expected of l-aqwa fl-Ewropa, but you mock China’s and Saudi’s victims by saying Malta is as bad as China and Saudi.

      • Joe Fenech says:

        I don’t get your comment. Malta is not worse that China and Saudi and, with regard to human rights, Malta’s become amongst the worst in Europe. Democracy is a fragile system but the Maltese are the least likely to fight for it.

    • Jozef says:

      Too busy asking whether the bishop should stay or go.

      There’s this Victor Axiak who just cannot get himself to resign from MEPA’s board on the lofty principles he set himself back when green was the rage.

      I can understand his knee jerk reaction to Joe Borg but Rene’ Camilleri and Inguanez aren’t exactly monsinjuri ta’ taht l-umbrella.

      So Labour’s split down the ideological middle, blame Simon Busuttil. Sweet.

  4. canon says:

    There is no sign of the end of the silly season.

  5. Luke says:

    This incident reminds me a lot of the storyline of the film Changeling.

    Christine Collins, played by Angelina Jolie, is summarily submitted to a psychiatric hospital for protesting against the San Francisco police (for failing to make any real effort to find her kidnapped son). This story takes place in the 1920s. We’ve come a long way since then, supposedly.

  6. Herbie says:

    Yes and according to that rag Kullhadd the police acted within the law.

  7. Do not give up. (I know you won’t.)

    I fully agree that the attitude of the media, and to some extent the Opposition, regarding this incident is shocking and shows a total lack of appreciation of the implications of the police action, which must have been known to the acting Police Commissioner, Minister Manwel Mallia, and ultimately the Prime Minister himself.

    The Prime Minister should condemn this police action, and take disciplinary action against those involved, or else he can be justly accused of allowing a police-state, reminiscent of undemocratic dictatorial regimes, to take hold in these islands.

    • observer says:

      “The Prime Minister…..can be justly accused of allowing a police-state……”

      Muscat’s expected reaction:- “noted”….(but no) “thanks”

      More of the same, again and again.

      As we say in Maltese “min jitwieled kwadru ma jmutx tond”.

      Fatalistic, maybe, but certainly very true.

  8. Disconcerted says:

    I too found this story highly alarming.

    I wish a reporter would track him down and get his side of the story.

    Did he flare up with the police and go ballistic? In a way I hope he did because the thought of him being arrested and sent to Mount Carmel for simply protesting is just too awful to contemplate.

    [Daphne – The police don’t send you to Mount Carmel for going ballistic. They lock you up themselves, and then throw the book at you. The fact that they didn’t lock him up and charge him means that he DIDN’T go ballistic. There was nothing with which they could charge this man after arresting him (parking your car wrongfully is a contravention, not a crime) and they couldn’t hold him for 48 hours themselves lawfully (suspicion of crime needed for that) so they covered their own arses in terms of their having arrested him for no crime, and also gave him a bad hassle to frighten him, by sending him to the psychiatric hospital with the backing of some shameless psychiatrist, only to have him discharged by another one.]

    • Natalie says:

      According to the story on The Malta Independent, this gentleman was not taken to be certified by a psychiatrist, but rather to a GP at Floriana Health Centre who refused to certify him.

      He was then taken to Casualty to be seen by the doctors there and was certified to Mount Carmel, only to be discharged a day after.

      It’s prudent to note that 80% of patients in Casualty are seen by junior doctors who ask for help as necessary from their seniors. It’s also important to note that all Casualty doctors are paranoid of missing something and they tend to err on the side of caution.

      My point here is that the police know all this and how to manipulate the situation to make sure that this man was sent to Mount Carmel Hospital.

    • Gakku says:

      You don’t actually need a psychiatrist to commit someone to a psychiatric hospital if using an emergency application (http://www.justiceservices.gov.mt/DownloadDocument.aspx?app=lom&itemid=8755 article 15).

  9. Alexander Ball says:

    I suspect he was arrested, and sent to the nuthouse, not for protesting, but for expecting it to lead to any meaningful change.

  10. J brincat says:

    Last time a nutter was outside CASTILLE he tried to shoot the PM , better not take risks , or do we wish to a repeat of the protests.

    [Daphne – Don’t be ridiculous.]

  11. Jozef says:

    http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-08-25/news/if-opm-protestor-was-sent-to-mount-carmel-then-so-should-i-astrid-vella-6333300736/

    [Daphne – Astrid Vella, missing the point as usual due to lack of rational thinking skills. That man wasn’t hauled off by the police to a psychiatric hospital because he protested against the MEPA. He was hauled off because he was picketing the prime minister’s office. The cause of protest could have been anything at all. The fact that it was the MEPA is incidental. And it wasn’t the MEPA who gave the orders for him to be arrested and taken to the psychiatric hospital (“MEPA is strong with the weak and weak with the strong”). It was clearly somebody in the OPM who didn’t want that bother on the doorstep.]

  12. Edward says:

    Yes, every society establishes what is normal and what isn’t, and those who deviate from it are considered to be mentally unwell.

    So in Malta, it is considered deviant and not socially acceptable to protest against a Labour government. Brilliant.

  13. Min Jaf says:

    And why is it that, several months after the removal of Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammt, we still have an Acting Commissioner running the Police?

  14. paul says:

    It’s incredible how people have become deaf, blind and dumb in this country.

    The Prime Minister nominates two editors for the ice bucket challenge: putting them both in the same basket.

    Instead of doing their job and asking questions and keeping their distance from politicians, they oblige.

    The energy minister (or was it the PM standing at his side?) nominates the journalist who interviewed his weeping wife in China, and she obliges.

    When journalists no longer realize they have got too close for comfort with politicians, it’s time for them to be replaced. We can’t trust them any more with telling us the truth.

    • Francis Saliba M.D. says:

      Most certainly our journalists are not telling us the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They are self-censoring themselves so as not to ruffle any Labour Party feathers. Probably because of vivid memories of the burning down of The Times with Mintoff shedding crocodile tears.

      Thank heaven for journalists like Daphne and thank God (acting through Dr Eddie Fenech Adami and the Nationalist Party) for membership of the European Union.

  15. Jozef says:

    http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-08-25/news/commercialisation-of-marsascala-park-generates-interest-6334447616/

    Taghna Lkoll, same happening in Bugibba, what was an extension of the Belvedere now about to be taken over by the usual aluminium kiosk and to an even greater extent Gzira.

    Basically, what is happening is an unprecedented land grab, the one in Gzira practically rendering the marina garden strip an excuse to build a vast ‘restaurant’.

    One can imagine what happens to any plan to refurbish the area right next to Manoel island bridge.

    And say goodbye to Ferro Bay, Tigne’ Beach and the whole strip along Qui Si Sana.

    Need we mention what’s happening in Mgarr Ix-Xini, San Blas, Ta’ Kantra and what will happen in Ta’ Cenc?

    To think Hondoq was a depleted quarry.

    Either Vella gets in line with Din L-art Helwa and unite forces, or Muscat will have her tag along his every line. Why, he even said we need to protect public spaces last week.

    How Astrid can take his condescending digs remains a mystery.

    And where’s that Martin Scicluna, wasn’t he Din L-art Helwa once?

    Carmel Cacopardo cannot even get himself to admit that his vicious attacks on everything GonziPN, MEPA reform and a declared agenda to reduce this country’s reliance on construction included, may have contributed directly to what we’re seeing now.

    It’s Labour’s mental architecture, the dissolution of spirit, we should be discussing, not methods of implementation, you morons.

    The moment Vella insists on aligning Muscat’s culture and economical model to the previous administration simply to score points, denotes her agenda. And that is unacceptable.

    Cacopardo gave Muscat the benefit of the doubt re.Marsaxlokk, accepting the thesis a gas infrastructure can actually be undersized and financially viable.

    What now Carmel?

  16. Why ? says:

    Just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday before you vanish again. Many thanks for your great work.

  17. Under Labour Anything Goes says:

    Newsbook is reporting that another vessel, Madra, has managed to escape from Maltese territorial waters despite it being arrested.

    http://www.newsbook.com.mt/artikli/2014/8/25/vapur-iehor-mizmum-milli-jbahhar-jahrab-minn-malta.21426

  18. ZambiTwo says:

    Having seen the ‘ice bucket video’ featuring the Prime Minister and Konrad Mizzi, I understand why Times of Malta is the unofficial English newspaper of the P.L. Who blames me?

  19. just me says:

    This incident reminded me of this…

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20070809/local/symbol-of-1970s-political-struggle-removed-from-castille.8696

    23 students were arrested for a peacful protest outside Castille. This occurred in 1977. Are we already back to the 70’s?

  20. Someone says:

    As mentioned in one of the many articles denouncing the ice bucket slacktivism fad, how many litres of clean potable water are being wasted while infants and children around the world are either dying of thirst or lack hygiene?

    Sad to see how the West is in a freefall.

    P.S. So disappointed that Simon Busuttil didn’t stick to his guns and gave in to the pressure.

  21. A. Charles. says:

    The psychiatrist who signed the commitment papers should be reported to the Medical Council for unprofessional behaviour.

    He may claim police and political pressure but this is still no excuse.

    The case should also be presented in the congress of the World Psychiatric Association which will be taking place soon in Madrid.

    The future and the integrity of the Malta Psychiatric Association is at stake.

  22. ciccio says:

    This gentleman should find a good lawyer and check if he can sue the government for violation of his fundamental human rights:

    1. Violation of his freedoms of thought and expression in a public place.

    2. Violation of his right for peaceful association and assembly. He even has the right not to associate himself in his peaceful ‘assembly.’

    3. I also think that what he was subjected to what must amount to arbitrary arrest.

    Does the Attorney General have anything to say about this incident in terms of violation of human rights? If I remember well, he had an opinion about the concept of acquisition of Maltese “citizenship” by non-Maltese nationals under human rights laws, and he had even given that opinion in writing to the Prime Minister.

    And if the Prime Minister and his Minister of Justice did not wish to “violate human rights” in the case of Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco, what is their position on this case?

  23. chico says:

    The best thing that some of them (most of them actually) could have done with their bucket of icy water, is stuck their heads inside and kept them there. Cut out the gimmicks and get real please. Bishop! For Christ’s sake.

  24. Volley says:

    Still there are those who either prefer to stick their head ‘under the carpet’ or else they are pure brainwashed. Last Saturday I met a guy who told me ‘Nothing is wrong ej in Malta, we’re doing fine. Even the buses are clean! Amazing ! I was lost for words. Couldn’t believe my ears. This is Malta, under Labour government and which over the years hasn’t learnt much from its past. This is the sick reality/mentality of the majority of the Maltese people. Sometimes I give up!

  25. silvio says:

    I am wondering how nobody has as yet, nominated you for the ice bucket.

    Would you accept?

    [Daphne – They have, and I ignored it as I ignore all attempts at playground coercion/bullying. The ice bucket challenge, shorn of its link to giving money to motor neuron disease research and support, as it has been in Malta, has developed into an extended form of schoolyard bullying in which people pick on each other and those who are picked on feel they have no choice but to join in or be considered bad sports and ‘unpopular’. The end result? Everybody involved comes across as ridiculous and/or eager to please and/or worried about the consequences of not joining in the farce.

    It’s the perfect metaphor (or parallel?) for what happened in the last general election, playing as it does to the same psychological weaknesses, herd mentality and fear of exclusion: ‘I’m In’. Taghna Lkoll. I’m with the winning team. So no surprise that the people who have embraced it most enthusiastically are precisely those.

    Remember chain letters and their contemporary equivalent of ‘please forward this email to 10 people and you will have good luck, and if you don’t then something bad will happen to you’? Exactly.

    Now we have a bunch of grown-ups who should have last been under an upended bucket aged five in a blow-up pool in the garden currently upending buckets over each other and pretending to be thrilled while the recipients pretend to be shocked by the chill (oh indeed, in sweltering heat in August). But have they donated anything to motor neuron disease care and research? Probably not.

    The only man who ever set the world alight by getting his shirt wet was Colin Firth. It is not going to be Konrad Mizzi or the PM. And nobody is interested in seeing any woman in a wet T-shirt unless she is Pamela Anderson aged 25. Michelle Muscat wearing a green swimsuit under a plunging white dress just doesn’t cut it. And as a side note, her husband dumped that bucket of ice-water on her a tad too enthusiastically, I thought, rather as though he had been waiting to do something like that for a while. Bad show all round. And where are the cheques?]

    • P Shaw says:

      Coming to think of it, shouldn’t Ariadne Massa have nominated her friend Sai Mizzi. After all, they have already developed a ‘crying relationship’. Alternatively, or in addition to the water bucket challenge, Mrs Mizzi could easily donate EUR13,000 to the cause without scarring the family fortunes.

    • Alex says:

      It’s also rather an insensitive waste of water. Imagine how people must feel in some parts of Africa when seeing thousands of buckets of water tipped away, including by world leaders and celebrities who could have actually used the occasion to underline this.

      • Natalie says:

        Silly and childish yes, but do you really have to comment on the waste of water? It’s just a bucket after all not a truckload.

        How many of us leave our mobile chargers stuck to the wall even when not in use, or leave the television rumbling on in the background even if no one’s watching? Do we bemoan the waste of electricity and wonder how many people risked their lives mining for coal (apart from the obvious environmental issues?)

        So let’s not be superficial and cry out against the waste of water.

    • F says:

      I think overall it has succeeded in raising awareness – my issue is with charities, given that huge proportions of donations are often paid to the owners and staff rather than going towards a good cause.

    • silvio says:

      By the way, welcome back, I hope you had a nice hoiliday.

    • L. Gatt says:

      Like everything else in Malta this ice bucket thing has become a meaningless fad.

      Being “nominated” is considered hip. Filming it (preferably in a bikini by a pool) even cooler.

      The general script is “I thank so and so for nominating me. I now nominate Tom Vella Muscat Scerri, Dick Sammut Busuttil Fenech and Harry Scriha Scerri Pace.”

      Donations? ASL? Not so important after all.

      All that matters is that the world knows we are considered important/wealthy enough to be “nominated” and have, of course, flaunted it off on Face Book and Twitter.

    • Matt says:

      I think you’re forgetting that the silliness of it is the reason that so much money for research has been raised. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of narcissism involved, but the fact that adults are doing what fives year olds normally would is the reason why the campaign has been so successful.

      The ALS association is a very transparent organization so the money isn’t just disappearing into it, as very often happens with these things. It’s directly funding the research.

      I wouldn’t do it myself because the way it’s been done does feel a little frivolous but at the end of the day it does help and it has been effective in a very concrete way.

      • Ares says:

        The real truth is that it seems that only around 7% of the funds are really going for research. The question is, where does the rest go?

  26. Peppa Pig says:

    That is what they do in North Korea, China, Cuba, Islamic countries and Russia.

    We sure are in good company.

    Thank you, Joseph.

  27. Allo Allo says:

    Maybe in this country (Malta), you need to protest outside the psychiatric hospital to be taken to the prime minister.

  28. Allo Allo says:

    …. and under previous administration Gonzi visited a protester at his home. That shows the difference between PN and LP in the treatment of lone protestors.

    • canon says:

      Don’t forget that before the last general election, Joseph Muscat promised us a change in direction. At that time former PM Lawrence Gonzi claimed that we don’t need change in direction and I think he was right.

    • Painter says:

      You’re right. But if the protestor that Gonzi visited is who I think it is, he should have been the one to be given treatment, not this man here.

  29. Banana Republic ...Again! says:

    At the rate things are going, I would go so far as to say that those who do not protest are the ones in need of psychiatric treatment!

  30. Gaetano Pace says:

    This man is an eligible candidate for compensation from Manwel Mallia and Joseph Muscat. He has been illegally arrested, he has been subjected to a medical examination against his will and deprived of his constitutional rights.

    Who of the legion of story-tellers and narrators in the Maltese media is going to narrate the occasion as a scoop?

    • ciccio says:

      He is more likely to get a ‘compensation’ if he suffered a blackout for more than 12 hours due to an Enemalta powercut – in which case he will be offered Eur 25 to shut his mouth up – rather than if all his constitutional rights are taken away from him. Such is life under a Labour government in Malta.

  31. Tal-Malja says:

    Our speaker of the house. Barefooted. Very innovative. His speech was never ending, while the water gets cooler. Vera smart u sexy ovvja hux u jivvintahom jemm hu bravu.

    http://www.independent.com.mt/mobile/2014-08-25/news/its-the-speakers-turn-now-to-take-up-ice-bucket-challenge-6338150400/

  32. Manuel says:

    Time of Malta made ‘headlines’ when it sent its own reporter on the doorstep of an 83-year old gentleman who hit and run a few cars in Attard, shoving a camera in his face.

    And yet, Times of Malta had a dictatorial case right under its nose, not far from its offices in Valletta, and yet the newspaper does not see it opportune to send a journalist with microphone and camera in hands, shoving it under the PM’s chin demanding an explanation of this breach of human rights.

  33. ateu says:

    To all those taking part in the Ice Bucket Challenge, you should take it in winter, not in the hot months of summer.

  34. M says:

    Creepy or what? I apologise in advance for any gastrointestinal problems you might incur after watching this.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRfm0Jzyeaw

    Just like the emperor had to be told that he was not wearing any clothes, someone might benefit from being reminded that white becomes see through when wet!

    That laugh, those hand movements, the facial contortions are the stuff of nightmares…first lady indeed, high society my foot!

  35. nemesis says:

    Well, what’s written on the poster seems perfectly sane to me and if anything diplomatic and understated. If one has to question anything it is the sanity of the police reaction.

  36. botom says:

    A few weeks ago another woman who went to the Prime Minister’s Office with some complaints was taken to Mount Carmel Hospital. And the same thing happened in this particular case – when the consultant psychiatrist visited her in the ward he immediately discharged her because she should never been admitted in the first place.

    And while our mental health system is being abused the Commissioner for Mental Health who is suppose to defend these patients is keeping himself busy trying to please the ministers rather than doing his job.

  37. Jozef says:

    http://www.independent.com.mt/mobile/2014-08-25/news/fdi-in-malta-reaches-96-billion-6334840832/

    It’s not looking good, FDI drops by 3 billion in 2013. That’s 25% less than 2012.

    And that’s an annual figure, not some quarterly blip.

    So let’s see, industrial production consistently down, a confirmed contraction in bank lending, deflation which could be both cause or effect or both, now this.

    Then there’s practically a billion in debt accumulated over the space of one and a half years, absolutely none of it capital investment.

    So he’s proud of his ’employment’ figures.

    Macro hofra if I may.

    • ciccio says:

      So rather than cutting bureaucracy by 25%, they cut FDI by 25%. Way to go.

      I was wondering: if the banks are reducing their lending to the economy – read local investors – who exactly is creating the jobs? My first thought was, well, maybe it is the FDI – investment by foreigners. Now we learn that FDI is down by 25%. And the answer to my question is very clear: it is the government which is creating the jobs, in the unproductive public sector.

      I am waiting for Scicluna’s pre-budget document. Where is it?

  38. pocoyo says:

    Using psychiatry as a political tool has been a trait of past and present totalitarian regimes. Let us hope this is not another sign of a budding Sino-capitalist-socialist dystopia.

    Who was the psychiatrists who cooperated with the police and sent this man to Mount Carmel, only to have him discharged immediately by the psychiatrist in charge there?

    The one who discharged him from hospital merits our admiration. But what a sad state we are in if one who does his duty is a hero.

  39. No spoil sport says:

    The ice bucket challenge is a fun way to raise awareness BUT in order for it to be effective, the participants need to be as keen to mention the cause and donate money as they are to promote themselves and nominate others.

    Not all remember to do this unfortunately. Those who do, well done – you remembered what you are taking up the challenge for.

  40. ciccio says:

    Meanwhile, there has been a political coup in the French government. The Minister of the Economy, who is widely expected to be a contender for the Presidency in 2017, has publicly declared himself against President Hollande’s economic policy.

    And Hollande is compelled to dismiss the entire cabinet and replace it with a new one.

    Background of today’s events:

    http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/08/24/business/24reuters-france-austerity.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=WireFeed&module=pocket-region&region=pocket-region&WT.nav=pocket-region&_r=0

  41. Freedom5 says:

    And how does the Opposition react to this incident? Nothing. Dr Busuttil was too busy working out whether to take the ice bucket challenge. He finally changed his mind and poured three buckets for good measure.

    I HAVE given up.

  42. Christian says:

    If this man’s abusive arrest and detention is not seen for what it is – a clear breach of his human rights and freedoms – and forcefully condemned by those responsible for the maintenance of law and order in this country, we will be justified in fearing that any form of public dissent will, from now on, be met with the same intolerance and intimidation.

    Those who, like me, can remember the police excesses and blunders of the ’70s and ’80s will not take this single incident lightly.

  43. ken il malti says:

    Well, it is better than in North America, as now police shoot to kill suspected mental patients on the spot.

  44. Challie says:

    X’tistenna minn pajjiz tant injurant li jahseb li l-Ebola hijja l-kawza tan-nuqqas ta’ paci fid-dinja.

    http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/data_and_surveys/42574/the_maltese_map_of_the_world#.U_vZr8WSxFQ

  45. Francis Saliba M.D. says:

    Well done to the psychiatrists who freed the sane man immediately and who did not succumb to the temptation of confining an innocent aggrieved sane person for years in a lunatic asylum so that the true story would not come out any time soon after that outrage happened, exposing that propaganda lie.

  46. carlo says:

    Insejtu meta fi zmien Mintoff baghtu l-dak tal-Mosta Mount Carmel wara li mar biex ikellmu dwar xi artijiet li kien hadlu. Spicca biex gennewh.

    L-istorja tirrepeti ruha taht il-Labour, ma jinbidlux.

  47. Jozef says:

    http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-08-26/news/marlene-farrugia-calls-for-explanationafter-man-sent-to-mount-carmelfollowing-protest-outside-castille-6346309632/

    “if the government wishes to hang on to what’s left of its credibility, the public deserves a proper explanation of how incidents like this are allowed (if not made) to happen in our country.”

  48. Calculator says:

    http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/arts/music/42649/not_this_time_local_bands_hit_out_at_eurovision_singers_government_contract#.U_xqyvmSx53

    Well, how about that? Someone finally asked what bands think about Willie Mangion’s work and/or contract. In polite and not-so-polite ways they basically said that it’s a waste of money and a sham.

  49. Gahan says:

    http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/42600/questions_raised_on_constitutional_courts_delay_in_appointing_farrugia_sacco_hearing#comment-1556991209

    Carmel Grima • 2 days ago
    Il-Ministru tal-Gustizzja jghid hafna affarijiet imma ma jasalx biex jghattwa dak li jghid. Xi xaharejn jew tlitt xhur ilu kien bghat ghalija biex niddiskutu il-problema/ilment tieghi fuq il-frame-up ta’ missieri, Karmenu Grima. Minflok kelli niffaccja sinjorina mill-customer Care unit tieghu, u li din ma setghet tifhem xejn sa anke ma gharfitx x’se tikeb u twassal lill-ministru. Onor. ministru jekk jghogbok tista’ issib hin u tibghat ghalija biex niddiskutu il-problema/ ilment tieghi u ma noqghodx nghid u nikxef il-verita’ fuq dan il-frame-up u hadd ma qal jew ikkonfrontani li dak li ghidt ma hux veru?Possibli kullhadd mill-politici tat-tmeninijiet , kemm laburisti u kemm nazzjonalisti jisthu juru wicchom minhabba dan il-frame-up, u li ikkommettew bejniethom, u li kellu jehel il-povru missieri, biex ma jinkixfux il-politici li ipperpetwaw il-vjolenza tal-15/10/1979?

    Carmel Grima • 2 days ago
    Biex nirrispondi lis-sinjuri li issimpatizzaw mieghi: Missieri kellu informazzjoni li l-Lorry Sant kien qieghed jifthiem ma Dr. Guido de Marco biex jekk jitla l-gvern Nazzjonalista fil-1981, il-Lorry ma jigix akkuzat b’korruzzjoni. Fl-ittra li kiteb lil Dom Mintoff , il-habib intimu tieghu fissirlu kollox u ipprezentahielu il-Marsa meta Dommy kien riekeb fuq iz-ziemel, pero dan dlonk qallu biex jikteb kollox u imur Kastilja u jghatihielu biex jinvestigaha. Hekk ghamel pero tkellem mal-messggier u kixef kollox mieghu. Dan minflok cempel lil Lorry Sant u kixfu, u peress li kien daqshekk f’sahhtu, il-Lorry ordna lil Maggur biex jitterminah hemm fuq il-post u tohrog l-ahbar falza li Grima mar biex joqtol lil-Prim u jehel b’kollox hu. Wara li dahhluh f’kamra maghluqa u sparawlu 9 tiri li 3 minhom laqtuh u baqghu f’ gismu sa ma miet, komplew ituh bil-butt tal-pistola u ghamlulu 40 punt go rasu meta semghu il-passi mghaggla tal-gurnalist tat-Times u hallewh ghall-mejjet fl-art. Missieri, kemm skond l-inkjesta Filletti u kemm l-Inkjesta Muscat Azzoppardi ma kienx armat u qatt ma spara, skond ix-xhud P.C.Sammut li kien prezenti ghall din it-tracedja.Ittiehed l-isptat fil-karozza tal-gurnalist u mexa on his own steam, ghax missieri kien ruxxan hafna u kullma tilef ftit demm miz-zejjed li kellu. Saru 4 attentati fuq hajtu u fl-ahhar salvah Dom Mintoff; pero il-Lorry baqa jhedded li jrid joqtlu biex jinghalqu l-kotba u hu ma jinkixifx. Dan kollu qalithu l-Inkjesta Muscat Azzoppardi, li gieghelt jien biex jghamel lil Dr.EFA fil-1990.Din ghamilha bil-mohbi tieghi imma Dr, Wenzu Mintoff kixfu ghax tlitt darbiet staqsieh fil-parlament x’fijha din hekk perikolus li Dr EFA heba fl-istrong room tal-parlament u dejjem irrisponda li ma hux fl-interess tal-poplu.Skond Mist. Parl. 14066 din insterqet minn Dr. Alfred Sant fil-1996, u l-ombudsman ma jridx jghamel investigazzjoni fuq hekk ghax se jinkixfu shabu li wettqu l-frame-up u l-iehor li kien jaf li se jaharquu l-bictejn ghamara minn gimgha qabel!
    • Reply•

  50. Joseph Ellul-Grech says:

    This man had every right to protest peacefully. That is a HUMAN RIGHT. No one can expect any different from the Malta police. They have always been unprofessional bullies and politically influenced.

    They also go as far as committing perjury to try and get a conviction. I, like many others, speak from experience. ttp://j-dalli.blogspot.co.uk/

    It is not this man that has a psychiatric problem but the authorities.

  51. giraffa says:

    No doubt the psychiatrist who declared the protester in need of psychiatric care, just to please the Police, will soon receive an iced bun.

    He should be named and shamed, and maybe some real journalist, having done his ice-bucket formality, will plunk a microphone in his face and ask a few pertinent questions.

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