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Published:
November 21, 2014 at 12:39pm
Posted by Ciccio:
I have just listened to the noon news bulletin on Radju Malta. It reported Minister Mallia as saying that Mr Morrison Smith was found to have an alcoholic level three times the normal level, and that he refused the police breathalyser test but later took the test on order of the magistrate as part of the formal inquiry.
TVM could only have got that information from the police, the very same police who refuse to tell the independent press whether Mr Morrison Smith is in their custody.
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Was Mr. Sheenan also subject to a breathalyser test ? His actions are surely not those of a person of sound mind.
It’s totally irrelevant whether Smith was over the alcoholic limit. That does not make it OK for a government minister’s driver to shoot at him as he drives off, after threatening him with a gun, whether he is also a police constable or not.
Super ONE radio news are still starting the news item referring to the case as ‘The hit and run involving so-and-so.’
When will the minister’s driver appear in court charged with the attempted murder of Mr Morrison Smith, and for making a false report to his superiors?
This looks more like a failed attempt of a frame up!
According to the TVM news, Manuel Mallia is arguing that the false version of events published by the Department of Information on Wednesday night was obtained from the scene, “a caldo” so to speak.
If this is his excuse, justification and defence, then I think even the Minister in charge of the Department of Information should go. Is that the Prime Minister?
Did the DOI publish a press release without any degree of independent verification?
If this is the quality of information published in DOI press releases, then why should we believe the DOI when it says that the health and energy minister’s marriage “is as strong as ever”, and that the prime minister’s chief of staff does not know where his first cousin Ryan Schembri has absconded to, and that he was never in business with him?
The government’s Department of Information is not there to release to the press and the public statements that compromise of a single person’s version of events, presenting them as indisputable fact.
Look at the prime minister defending the same line. Watch the furrow on his forehead getting deeper as he tries to defend the indefensible.
If the DOI’s press release was based on unverified information, but government wanted the information to come out as soon as possible (this is sheer nonsense in terms of the functions of a DOI), why didn’t the press release state so, or did it just present the unverified information as the facts?
The truth is that no Department of Information worth its name publishes unverified information.
Oh please, Mr. Prime Minister.
The DOI’s press release on Wednesday was an attempt to cover up the entire incident. When the government’s propaganda realised that the truth had come out, they decided to back track and to play an innocent role. Liars.
The minister in charge of the DOI is also compromised by the events.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141121/local/shooting-incident-no-action-against-minister-until-magisterial-inquiry-is-concluded-prime-minister.545054
Smacks of Orwell’s 1984, doesn’t it.
Version 2014.
Joseph must have read the book and learned from it. His hero in that book is not Winston Smith but Big Brother.
So does having a few drinks make it okay for someone to fire a gun at you?
I can’t come to terms with the fact that Mr.Smith is in jail whilst the shooter is free and able, should he deem fit, to go around the neighborhood silencing potential witnesses.
Next on line, in a few months time, the minister’s driver might be given a promotion/new post- may be in the PM’s office or a cushy job in Brussels.
The level of alcohol in his blood is utterly irrelevant in this case. The press and the Opposition should stick to the salient points.
1. A policeman on secondment as a driver to a government minister has shot at, and hit repeatedly, the retreating car of a man on whom he drew a gun. Mr Smith is very lucky to have escaped with his life, as one of those bullet-holes indicates that the shot was aimed at his head, whether deliberately or by chance.
2. The shooting took place in a residential area and it`s almost a miracle that no one else has been injured.
3. The police have arrested the victim of this crime and kept him in custody for more than 24 hours. Luckily he is a British subject, and the British High Commission is watching every move the police make. (God help him had he been a Maltese citizen.)
4. The perpetrator of the shooting is still free.
5. The first reaction of the government was to feed the press a fabricated story intended to get the minister’s driver off the hook.
6. The Minister of the Police (or whatever his actual moniker) yesterday described the driver as a “quiet man” who is dedicated to his duty as policeman.
7. The Prime Minister has refused to dismiss Minister Mallia, and has instead transferred the onus of that decision to somebody who is not empowered to make it: the magistrate conducting the inquiry.
The alleged blood alcohol concentration is totally irrelevant.
The maximum sentence for “driving under the influence” is way below having the car shot up with some three bullets whizzing around the head of the driver inside the car and in a busy public road.
The minister’s driver should also have been tested for alcohol. Tghid ma hax xi grogg ghand il-mummy.
“alcoholic level three times the normal level”
What exactly does that mean? The normal level is almost nothing and three times that would be nowhere near the legal limit.
Is this just intentionally misleading lawyerspeak or just inaccurate reporting?
It seems that some are under the impression that the Department of Information is some kind of independent body. It is not.
The DOI only releases press information fed to it by the government of the day. It is very cowardly of Manwel Mallia to pass the buck on to the DOI, preying on the ignorance of a section of the public.
Unfortunately drink driving has always been the norm in Malta…hitting a mirror is certainly not unusual in this car busy island…what is not normal is the disgusting abuse of ‘power’ by a police officer firing his gun at an honest guy who stopped to collaborate when he hit his mirror…unbelievable !