Cabinet Secretary Found Guilty Of Drink Driving After Encountering Police Roadblock
Cabinet Secretary Ryan Spagnol was found guilty of drink driving and had his driving license suspended for six months.
Court records show Spagnol encountered a police roadblock as he was driving through Triq tal-Barrani, Żejtun in the early hours of 22nd December, 2023.
Police stopped his car and, suspicious of his red eyes and behaviour, made him undertake a breathalyser test.
Spagnol was found to have 42.7mg per 100ml of alcohol in his breath, almost double the legal limit of 22mg.
His defence lawyers tried to discredit the breathalyser test, but magistrate Jean Paul Grech found him guilty of three counts of drink driving, fined him €1,800 and suspended his license for six months.
Although the sentence was handed out on 24th May, it was only published online in August.
Lawyer Jason Azzopardi – who Spagnol recently sued for libel over allegations of his involvement in the Identita’ ID card racket – claimed that Prime Minister Robert Abela had instructed the courts to delay the publication of his Cabinet Secretary’s sentence.
He called for the resignations of Spagnol, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, Court Director Eunice Grech Fiorini, and Abela himself.
“Not only could this not have happened without Robert Abela’s consent – and if someone tells me he didn’t know about it I will respond that he isn’t even capable of leading a pigeon racing club – and was therefore the author of this cover-up but because he chose his Cabinet Secretary,” Azzopardi said.
“The mafia concealed a serious fact like this, in which the court found the Cabinet Secretary guilty of a crime, two weeks before an election because it didn’t want you to know about it.”
“Also look at the hypocrisy of Abela’s government, which preaches against drink driving, while he defends and covers up for his own friend.”
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