John Dalli Objects To Being Called Corrupt, Demands Proof Or Apology From Repubblika
Former European Commissioner John Dalli has lashed out at Repubblika after the civil society group named him as one of the untouchables the police were refusing to investigate over corruption, during a protest yesterday evening.
Members of the civil society group, who Dalli branded “a small group of exalted puppets”, held a protest outside the Police headquarters in Floriana yesterday to demand action by the police on several cases of alleged corruption involving high-ranking government officials and businessmen.
Members of the group stuck photos of these so-called untouchables – including Dalli’s – onto the gate outside the headquarters.
Dalli, a former Nationalist Minister, was forced to resign from his post as European Commissioner back in 2012, because of an investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud office into a complaint by Swedish tobacco producer, which alleged that he had sought a payment to influence possible future legislation on tobacco products.
In 2013 he was appointed a consultant on healthcare to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
“Tonight, a small group of exalted puppets who do not represent anyone but act as if they are running this country have decided to associate me with corruption, as their leaders have been doing for the past 35 years,” Dalli said in a statement this morning.
In it, he accuses the European Commision of obstructing justice, a claim Dalli has continued to make despite the European Court of Justice dismissing his appeals for compensation.
“Perhaps they are referring to the numerous calumnies invented by the perverse criminal Daphne Caruana Galizia such as the one that Egrant is owned by myself, that I am involved in 17 Black, that I was involved in the privatisation of the hospitals etc…,” Dalli continued.
“The perverse criminal was given impunity by a Labour government when I took action against her for harassment. They prevented the police from proceeding with an investigation which had started,” he claimed.
He referred to a list of other cases of alleged corruption, which he said had not been named by Repubblika in the same way he had been named.
“I expect these nonentities who are boosted by the corrupt media in Malta to substantiate their allegation or make an apology,” Dalli concluded.
Dalli’s comments reflect absurdity Malta has been brought to – Repubblika
Reacting to Dalli’s comments, Repubblika president Robert Aquilina noted that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa had in 2015, back when he was still an inspector, had declared to a parliamentary committee that he still believed there was a case to pursue against Dalli.
In light of these statements, Aquilina said that Dalli’s request for an apology embodied the ridiculous state the country had been brought to.
“It is truly a surreal situation to have a person, who the police commissioner said he wanted to charge in court eight years ago, issuing statements and requesting apologies from those quoting what the commissioner had said, rather than being charged in court,” Aquilina said.
What do you make of Dalli’s statement?
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