What arrogance, and preferential treatment
So was John Dalli told to remove his belt, shoelaces and watch before being held overnight in a cell?
Apparently not.
Malta Today, which seems to function as his public relations agency and mouthpiece, reports:
MaltaToday is informed that John Dalli spent the night between Monday and Tuesday inside the Commissioner of Police’s office, because he chose to have interrogation continue uninterrupted.
God, what arrogance and preferential treatment. HE chose to have his interrogation continue through the night. Does he mean he ordered the Police Commissioner to sit right there and carry on, whether he liked it or not?
Or does it mean that the Police Commissioner offered him a choice?
And are we expected to believe that they talked non-stop from Monday evening, when Dalli was arrested, right through to Tuesday evening, when he was let go, sitting right there in John Rizzo’s office?
Did they let him have a kip on the sofa, or what?
The police really need to issue a statement. Abuse of power doesn’t just mean beating somebody up in a cell. It also means giving disgraced EU Commissioners and cabinet ministers special treatment.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121114/local/pm-asked-to-investigate-mfsa-chairman-s-link-to-cayman-islands-company-consultant.445252
My goodness. This is exactly what we need, …Bannistergate!
Really a Banana state
Bartolo’s being absolutely disingenuous, that directorship’s declared and is only one of a number the man has, others being in Luxembourg and London. It’s common knowledge in the sector.
How does Evarist think he got all his contacts to be able to build the portfolio of companies registered with the MFSA today?
The truth is Bartolo’s irked at something quite particular, perhaps personal. The usual politician trying his hand at interfering with an autonomous regulator.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121115/local/mfsa-reacts-to-criticism-of-its-chairman.445528
Bartolo should have the bloody courage to refrain from using parliamentary privilege if he has to revert to slander.
Unless there’s a clear intention to give us a taste of things to come. Idiots.
Then there’s Privitera putting his foot in it, as usual. Jizzattu u jghaffgu.
John Dalli is used to business breakfast. As regards the Police Commissioner I don’t know.
Why are you so eager to see blood?
[Daphne – I am not ‘eager to see blood’. I am eager to see evidence that some pigs are not more equal than others. Isn’t that the favourite refrain of the political party you support? Strange then, how that party hasn’t taken it up in John Dalli’s regard. If those who are held overnight for interrogation are routinely divested of their watches, belts and shoelaces, and held in a cell, then this routine should have been adhered to also with Mr Dalli. Fair’s fair. As I said, abuse does not only mean treating somebody badly. It also means treating them better than the rest.]
There’s an investigation underway (contrary to what you have been repeating), so why not wait till the Police finalise its job and decides how to proceed? Why take sides if you don’t have full knowledge of the facts?
[Daphne – I know rather more facts than you think. And I’m not talking about this case.]
Yesterday you must have been grinning when you wrote that the Police must have a perverted sense of humour for questioning Dalli at the same time of Tonio Borg’s own “interrogation”. Well I’d add to that, that you must be getting some kind of perverse pleasure yourself at thinking about Dalli in a cell, and this prior to the conclusion of a thorough investigation.
[Daphne – Actually, I’m not. I feel sad that somebody who got so far from such ordinary beginnings should have been undone by greed. It is a classic morality tale.]
This is not a football match (if I may use a line of yours). And if you want you pound of flesh, at least have the decency to wait for the correct process to be gone through.
[Daphne – What exercises me most of all, Mandango, is why Labour voters such as yourself are so keen to defend him, when only a few years ago you (perhaps not specifically you) were quite certain of his corruption. Has something happened in the interim to make you change your minds about HuBastjan?]
I am not defending him and have not changed my mind as to what I think of him. (I won’t refer to John Dalli as Hu Bastjan, as I never thought of one as being his brother’s keeper).
What I do think however, is how right Alfred Sant was all along. And not just about him! If you have a closer look at PN and who’s has fallen out of favour within its ranks since the last elections, you’ll find that perhaps Sant was justified in his stance on certain elements with the PN Ministerial and PS groups. A co-incidence, perhaps, but I hardly think so.
[Daphne – “How right Alfred Sant was all along”. Yes, he even won the referendum on Europe, as I recall. He told us so. And CET…he was so right about that. And staying on as leader after losing two elections and a referendum on Europe..he was right there, too. And the way he ran Malta was so very right that people rushed to vote him out after just 22 months. Alfred Sant. He Was Right.]
And one other thing, why are you surprised about Labour supporters supposedly changing their minds about what they think of Dalli (if that is the case)?
I mean, you have had your own change of heart more than once: JPO, Tonio Borg, Franco Debono himself (I do recall you writing positively about him prior to his fallout).
[Daphne – I changed my opinion of Pullicino when I discovered what he is. I have not changed my opinion of Tonio Borg. I have not changed my opinion of Franco Debono. I was the first to say he has a screw loose – in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 election. I have not changed my opinion since. Labour supporters have not changed their opinion of John Dalli. They see in him a useful tool.]
Has something happen in the interim?
Yes. SARGAS.
Labour are not defending only John Dalli. They are defending all those PN supporters, activists, officials who for obvious reasons decided to harm the PN as much as possible. They, the PL, i.e., must get a larger skip.
Depends how much volume you occupy….then we can perhaps decide on the size of the skip.
I would guess that Dalli volunteered for the interrogation to continue during the night after being requested by the police in order to eliminate the objection that any statement he cared to sign was extracted when he was “tortured” by a long interrogation when he was too tired to follow what was going on.
I can tell you about arrogance and preferential treatment, and about evidence of how some pigs are more equal than others (and I’m not talking about Adrian Vassallo, here).
The other day Mater Dei Pharmacy outpatients was chock-a-block, as usual, with a long queue of patients waiting their turn outside in the corridor as well.
In storms the Commissioner emeritus, unchallenged, as if he were still minister of health, charges straight through into the inner sanctum of the pharmacy, and emerges a minute later clutching his bag of medicines.
His minion helped him on with his jacket, and off they went to the four-wheeler waiting outside.
He still carries clout in some quarters.
[Daphne – JOHN DALLI GETS HIS PILLS FREE? For God’s sake.]
It reminds me of an incident few years ago: A magistrate who stormed into the hospital pharmacy and demanded to be given some free medicine, not only because he was an all mighty magistrate, but also because his nephew was working there as a pharmacist.
The medicine he demanded was…. Panadol.
His poor nephew was so embarrassed and had to hide inside the back room telling the other pharmacist “Tell him NO & tell him that I am not here”.
The magistrate, who was all “Don’t you know who I am? Jien, Mr Justice *******” (He was working as a judge in Kosovo at that time) made such an impression that the story went around hospital like wild fire.
Very well said.
“The police really need to issue a statement. ”
I agree 100%.
The story as reported by MaltaToday is not credible.
“It also means giving disgraced EU Commissioners and cabinet ministers special treatment.”
C’est la vie. Some even end up serving their prison sentence in cushy Mount Carmel, tending to their patch of land and potatoes. Some sort of real-life FarmVille as a punishment.
While wishing John Dalli the best of luck, a small word of advice.
JOHN WATCH YOUR BACK.
And keep away from high spots.
Note the difference between a person being asked to attend for questioning and the issue of an arrest warrant.
[Daphne – John Dalli was not “asked to attend for questioning”. He was held under arrest for a day and a night. If you are held for questioning, you are under arrest. This means that you are locked in and prevented from leaving.]
The police may come to your place or call or send you a letter to attend for questioning at a police station or at the police head quarters.
You are not obliged to attend but if they have proof that you are involved in a crime they may ask a judge to issue a warrant of arrest.
When under arrest, an arrest warrant is shown to you with the reasons for your arrest. After the Miranda declaration is read to you, you will be asked to submit all you have in your packets and a body search follows after which you will be allowed one phone call. Then you are thrown in a cell until someone comes for you to take you for the interrogation.
There is no search, Miranda declarations or body search when you are asked to attend for questioning. From experience.
[Daphne – From experience, too: being held for questioning and prevented from leaving even when you want to do so constitutes arrest. If you are held overnight, arrest is beyond dispute.]
I think that we ought to be told whether John Dalli was treated any differently from anyone else under interrogation at the Police HQ, and by no less than the Police Commissioner himself.
How many say that: Do you not know who I am? I found through life that the real intelligent and successful people are humble, never display their super intelligence on purpose and above all not selfish.