The ‘three retired judges’ inquiry report – read it here
Published:
December 9, 2014 at 12:11am
It’s in PDF format in the link below. Take a look and tell us what you think.
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http://3c3dbeaf6f6c49f4b9f4-a655c0f6dcd98e765a68760c407565ae.r86.cf3.rackcdn.com/d0f8db0054a55f7d3b48db61089442753b49b663.pdf
I already read it from the Malta independent online. Just crap and all that’s listed, we already knew it from Maltarightnow.com. What a waste of money. Nothing new. What was the PM waiting to hear or read in it?
Far from crap, the report is quite telling. Still reading it. First gem on page 4, last paragraph:
Silvio Scerri told the inquiry board he did not see the DOI release before it went out and insisted on that version in a second sitting. But when shown the e-mail evidence and confronted with the acting police commissioner, he even admitted to making amendments, including adding the words “fl-ajru” to the statement about the warning shots.
Second gem on page 10: Manuel Mallia lies to the board when he says he did not see the DOI report before it was published. They don’t believe him and give their reasons.
The board of inquiry did not believe Don Manwel’s statement here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLRMshlTWuk
If the testimony was under oath (as the inquiry is legally justified and empowered to hear evidence under oath) then Manuel Mallia, Silvio Scerri and Ray Zammit have given false testimony and that is a criminal offence (there is no retraction here) (Art 108 Chapter 9).
If not under oath then they have failed without sufficient cause to answer fully in terms of Art.6(4) of Chapter 273 and are subject to a fine and actionable with concurrence of the Attorney General.
Truth will out.
I love how it’s unvelied that the minister himself said that he knew more than he initially let on.
And what’s up with the Maltese/Italian sentences? Reminds me of a certain famous political character.
It seems that the three wise men have missed the point that the press release should have been issued by the police not the Department of Information.
In other words Kurt Farrugia should have not involved himself and let the police do their job. In their own words, by getting involved Farrugia has actively participated in the cover up.
Henry James, irringrazzja ‘l Alla frankajtu bicca inkwiet, tas-CMRU.
Jew fil-korp m’ghadx hemm tfarfir?
Did these retired judges speak to Stephen Smith at all, or did I skip past that bit of the report?
Stephen Morrison Smith was summoned (as per page 2 of the report) but unlike Silvio et al no reference to what he said was made throughout the rest of the report. What interested the public was Smith’s version.
The best part of the report is on page 12 first sentence Silvio Scerri Chief of Stuff – Kap tal-imbarazz. Hilarious!
I still find it strange how there is very little coverage of evidence given by l-Iskocciz. Should have featured as much as Sheehan in my opinion.
No, this is not a ‘compilation of evidence’ to find out what happened before the shots.
The inquiry was set up to determine why the press release was issued wrongly, that is, whether it was deliberate or not.
If it was deliberate, then there was a cover up.
Why Sheehan shot at Smith and what happened between them cannot be discussed in this report as it could impinge on rights to a fair hearing.
About Kurt Farrugia, the report says that:
“Ma jirrizultax li qabel ma giet ippublikata l-istqarrija dan Kurt Farrugia u sahansitra Ramona Attard kienu a konoxxenza tal-fatt li l-vettura kienet giet milquta b’tiri…”
At 10.39pm on 19 November, Daphne had published a post with headline:
“Police Minister’s chauffeur shoots at man in Triq Wied Il-Kappara, Tal-Qroqq”
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2014/11/police-ministers-chauffeur-shoots-at-man-in-triq-wied-il-kappara/
In a comment I made under that post at 10.53pm, I had linked to a MaltaToday article, copying and pasting a quote:
“Mallia’s driver, a police officer, fired two warning shots in the air. The Scottish man’s car was hit. ”
If MaltaToday’s story was confirming Daphne’s facts with additional detail about shots hitting a car before 11.00pm, how could Kurt Farrugia, head of the government’s communications, not know those facts before he published the press some time after 11.00pm?
“In a comment I made…” – horrible English.
correction “…before he published the press release…”
The last sentence confirms what Simon Busuttil has been saying. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the prime minister to decide.
I’ve skimmed through it and I think this:
That “political cover-up” was never in the inquiry’s remit. So the Prime Minister’s grandiloquent statements about there being no evidence of a political cover-up are the biggest load of bullshit ever.
The inquiry was never going to find evidence of that, because it wasn’t its job to do so.
We are left with the question of what a “political cover-up” is. It’s nonsense. There is no such thing as a “political cover-up”. There is a cover-up, and there are people ordering the cover-up.
They may be public officials, private citizens or politicians. So this is nothing but more Six Hats bullshit vocabulary to confuse our minds.
In this case, there was a cover-up, and at least one public officials and political appointee (Kurt Farrugia) was involved. His boss is the Prime Minister. Kurt Farrugia’s motivation was political, because he answers to his boss and was trying to protect his boss’s public approval.
Therefore, if we wish to employ Joseph Muscat’s wonky terminology, there was a political cover-up, and it was massive, purple, naked, covered in glitter and dancing on the piano. And it is he should go.
In Manuel Mallia’s position I would be asking for the Prime Minister’s resignation.
If I can rephrase Margaret Thatcher:
“You resign if you want to. The Bullfrog is not for quitting.”
Or as the prime minister would put it: “Nirrizenjalek iz-zikk.”
Ciccio, behave. Ara ma ssirx hamallu int ukoll issa.
“If you can’t beat them…”
“Six Hats bullshit” . . . ya gotta love this guy
The perception substitution for traffic is your pure lateral thinking provocation result.
Not worth the paper it is written on.
And why were they miffed about what was said, namely that the inquiry was a cover-up? That was a political assessment and who made it had every right to say it.
Mit-Times:
No fault was found in the actions of Silvio Scerri, chief of staff at the Ministry of Home Affairs, and Kurt Farrugia, head of communications at the Office of the Prime Minister.
Min qal lil Saviour Balzan jibdel il-kuntest minn tiri lejn karozza ghall-tiri ta’ twissija fl-ajru?
Silvio Scerri is the author of the “in the air” masterpiece immediately after “warning shots”.
He was keen to clarify that this wasn’t some ordinary ‘warning shot’ where the police shoot at you without hitting you.
He even denied that he had seen the report when in fact he had even written an email and as you say changed a damning bit. (pg 4)
Yet he is still judged as having done nothing wrong. Is denial i.e. lying not another name for covering up, aka cover up?
Will Manuel Mallia go down as Malta’s most demoted senior minister in the country’s history?
He first loses the justice portfolio and now the rest.
Joseph Muscat should have appointed Don Manwel Mallia as Minister without Portfolio from Day 1. Hadn’t he realised Don Manwel keeps his investments in cash, under the mattress?
I was shocked that three ex-members of the judiciary would compile such a report and present it to our so called prime minister, writing in Maltese without using Maltese fonts. Makes it look even cheaper than it already is.
[Daphne – You can NOT be serious. That shocked you? What a country. Ring Josanne Cassar. I’m sure she’ll oblige you by writing a column about it.]
Daphne, you made my day with this comment! I cannot stop laughing!
In fairness, getting the alphabet wrong is a bit on the amateurish side. I’ve never understood why people can’t actually write Maltese using the correct one – it’s just unprofessionally extremely lazy.
[Daphne – I’m one of those who don’t either. I know perfectly well what should be dotted or crossed, but I find any such dots and crosses an insult to one’s intelligence. Do you really need your h to be crossed to know that hsara should be pronounced hsara? Obviously not. So why do it? Maltese orthography was conceived in one fell swoop in an age of wholesale illiteracy, and it shows. You are fluent in English. Do you need markers to hold your hand through the pronunciation of THOUGH, TOUGH, THOUGHT? No, you don’t. Well, then.]
i was shocked these three wise men participated in this mess – first things first.
I now realise my sarcastic tone and intention was not so evident. The inquiry was was a scam from the start and we all knew it.
On the subject of Don Manwel Mallia, the report is recommending his resignation. In a roundabout way.
The report says that Don Manwel should have corrected the press release before he went to sleep that night.
Instead, Don Manwel chose to get back home to his mattress.
He seems to be doing the same thing tonight. Shouldn’t he have resigned already, before getting into his pyjamas?
The three retired judges do not say it, but the implication is there: the prime minister came to know that the Department of Information had just published a lie aimed at covering up something that had already been exposed, and yet he went to sleep nonetheless.
And he knows he screwed this one up.
Joseph Muscat acted like Captain (Mu)schettino. He saw the ship leaning and sinking, and yet he jumped for his safety – because it was dark and he wanted to go back home.
He is, after all, a Muscateer. All for one and one for all.
http://www.maltafly.com/sites/default/files/3-muscat-eers.jpg
Having now read the report, there I find out that indirectly the three wise men suggest that Mallia knew of the bullet holes when he was still at Police HQ, and yet did nothing to find out or correct the release, even after his other driver on his way home told him that he saw the bullet holes.
When Ramona Attard rings him at midnight to tell him we had better correct it, Mallia already has his other driver’s eye witness confirmation. He decides to do nothing instead.
This covert damning finding comes after an opening statement that they do not believe he did it “maliciously”.
This is a judicial way of saying that Mallia is a political liability and a total incompetent to be got rid of before it is too late. Muscat could not ignore this.
Daphne, who is Saviour Balzan, of the witnesses?
[Daphne – What do you mean? I thought everybody knew that Saviour Balzan owns Malta Today along with Roger de Giorgio. He’s that man who interviews people on TVM’s reporter.]
That’s what I thought, why was he a witness?
Int orrajt Joe?
How come the prime minister saw nothing wrong with Silvio Scerri’s behaviour? He lied about his involvement and later admitted it.
How does these things work out for the Prime Minister? He confessed and his sins are absolved?
Actually, since the prime minster seems to be ok with this behavior, we are the ones who should really worry about it. Why does the prime minister need to keep such a liar close to him, even now that his particular type of lying, even in the face of written proof, has been exposed?
He has been shown to have the same qualities of Sheehan. Used the power which he feels has rubbed off on him to:
1. Gain access to a venue beyond what was entitled (at the concert)
2. Expect celebrity status (do you know who I am)
3. Abuse of the police services (order them to arrest an innocent man
4. Lie unashamedly to exculpate himself, even when there was tangible proof (email he had written adding in the air)
Sheehan has:
1. Used his position to have access to the crime scene
2. Used term ‘driver tal-ministru’ to weild influence with 112
3. Manipulate RIU to intervene and other police to arrest the victim
4. Lie unashamedly (minister was with him, daughter was with him, he was attacked, the car was bashed in) even when he was being recorded and multiple persons could have shown him up.
Except for the use of a weapon, how is Sheehan’s behaviour not in line with Scerri’s? The illusions of grandeur, the hysteria, the pathological lying…
At this point there are so many lies, and so many cover-ups.
And they ultimately all fall at Joseph Muscat’s door.
These three retired jugdes are a farse in itself . Justice is failng us by the hour . Who needs go to courts in hope of any justice? We are back to being Barbanians once more .
Don Manuel should now retire and help Cornuta (or whatever her name is) with the housework.
May I suggest that whilst we’re at work this morning going on with what it is that we do, we should spare a moment or two of silence in solidarity with Kurt Farrugia.
You see, going by the report of the three wise men, he too went to work, was called in for a meeting and was used and I dare say abused, in issuing a press release which was a downright cover up. With friends like these. And mind you, he didn’t have a clue, poor man before someone else told him.
Will someone, anyone, pull the other one, please?
The report notably says this:
“Jekk invece in-nuqqas li jkun isir maghruf, il-Ministru li jkun ghazel u innomina l-persuna li ikkommettiet in-nuqqas, x’aktarx ma jkunx ragel bizzejjed biex jighd mea culpa u ghal bzonn jixhet ir-rizenja tieghu talli ghazel persuna li ma kelliex il-kwalitajiet necessarji biex taqdi d-dmirijiet li jkun assenjalha.”
I too, firmly believe that the moral standing for the decision ruling the eventual decision should have come from none other than the Prime Minister whose duty it was to take that decision.
Now what we have here is a situation where even playing by his own made-up rules, the PM – according to that paragraph quoted above – who is primarily the one who made the irresponsible and negligent decision of placing Manuel Mallia in that position – is ALSO in a position where he should be resigning.
Even playing the game by the weak rules that he himself determined, Joseph Muscat is not man enough to say mea culpa when he should.
Playing the game by his own rules, Joseph Muscat and Manuel Mallia, should have resigned on the spot with the Acting Commissioner.
Silvio Scerri should also have resigned.
The first part of this report says one thing while the conclusions seem to say another. Perhaps that was the only way that the conclusions that Joseph Muscat wanted could be reached.
The report is clear that Mallia should shoulder responsibility.
What was that crap about political responsibility and non-political responsibility?
The report, and indeed the terms of reference of the enquiry make no such distinction. There was a cover-up, an active cover-up and the Minister is responsible. Full stop.
If the prime minister asks Kurt Farrugia to resign it will backfire. It was crystal clear that he was involved.
A master cover up to cover up the previous cover up signed by three honourable three judges.
The incriminating evidence is all there for all to see. What is unbelievable is the judges’ conclusion.
The PM has once again managed to interpret the report in a most nonsensical way.
Kurt Farrugia and Silvio Scerri were also very much involved and they too should have been held responsible. But then that would have led to the PM having to hand in his resignation too.
What an insulting farce all this is. May things not stop here.
The police commissioner was in Mallia’s company when these events unfolded.
Sheehan changed his version over the phone to “warning shots”, presumably after speaking to Mallia.
It is highly unlikely that the minister had nothing to do with the way Zammit described the shots as ‘warning shots’.
Much of this is due to ignorance and to the fact that Zammit would assume a fellow policemen would have fired warning shots and not shots directly at a car. Mallia conveniently played along with this and advised Sheehan accordingly.
You don’t have to specifically say something to influence weak people like Zammit. The latter was certainly not fit for the post he held so no big loss there, but he has taken the fall alone for this mess which is not right.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-12-10/local-news/Medically-indisposed-Mallia-promises-to-remain-loyal-to-the-Labour-movement-in-letter-to-PM-6736127131
Min huma z-zewg persuni li ghazlu li ma jixhdux jew li ma ntalbux biex jixhdu ? Kurt, Ramona, Silvio kollha xehdu. Qed jirreferi ghal Prim Ministru ?