Photograph used by former General Workers Union boss in Facebook assault on PANA Committee chairman was taken by government head of communications

The photograph which former General Workers Union boss Tony Zarb used in a Facebook post calling for the removal of Werner Langen, who chairs the European Parliament’s anti-money-laundering (PANA) committee, was taken by the government’s head of communications, Kurt Farrugia. Read Mr Zarb’s Facebook homophobic and insulting post here.

Mr Farrugia was seen bringing out his phone to photograph Dr Langen as he stopped to speak to Nationalist MEP David Casa on his way out of the chamber. Dr Langen walked out in anger while Joseph Muscat was speaking, having voiced his protest at the way Dr Muscat was “lying” to the European Parliament.

This further assault on the PANA Committee by the Maltese prime minister and his aides will not sit well with the committee, which has been after the testimony of the prime minister’s chief of staff, and of the prime minister himself, for several months. It has accused both of using evasive tactics, and has said that Konrad Mizzi, who did appear before the committee on its field visit to Malta, “did not convince us of his innocence”.

This photograph of PANA Committee chairman Werner Langen, stopping to speak to Nationalist MEP David Casa as he walked out of the European Parliament chamber while Joseph Muscat was speaking, was taken by the government’s head of communications, Kurt Farrugia, and used by former GWU boss Tony Zarb in an insulting, aggressive and homophobic Facebook post.