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Judges Left Stunned By Police Inaction On Panama Scandal, Say Attorney General Wanted To ‘Tread Carefully’

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A panel of judges and judges Emeritus was left completely dissatisfied at the way the police failed to take any action in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal.

Assistant commissioner Ian Abdilla, who was until recently head of the police’s Economic Crimes Unit, was summoned to testify at the public inquiry looking into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

He confirmed that the police didn’t call in former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and former Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi after Carauna Galizia revealed they own offshore Panama companies.

Abdilla argued that this was a procedural issue as it is practice for the police to only call in suspects for interrogation when they’ve gathered enough evidence.

“I’ve worked with police and that’s simply not true,” Judge Abigail Lofaro retorted. “We’re not talking about Ċikku l-Poplu here either but about politically exposed people.”

Abdilla stuck to his line of defence, insisting that the instructions he receives for all cases is not to inform suspects that they’re under investigation until they have enough evidence to do so.

Left: Konrad Mizzi; Right: Keith Schembri

Left: Konrad Mizzi; Right: Keith Schembri

However, the judiciary panel weren’t satisfied, noting that the Panama Papers was an international scandal that forced a number of high-profile foreign politicians, including Prime Ministers, to resign.

Judge Emeritus Michael Mallia asked Abdilla whether he has ever read Secrecy World, a book about the Panama Papers penned by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jake Bernstein.

“Malta is mentioned in this book… have you read it?” he asked.“No, this is the first time I’ve heard of it,” Abdilla responded.

And at not point, Lofaro couldn’t hide her frustration as Abdilla confirmed the police haven’t sent letters rogatory to Panama to request information about Mizzi’s and Schembri’s offshore companies.

“It seems like we’re living on two completely different planets here,” she said.

Towards the end of his questioning, Abdilla bemoaned the human resource shortfall that has plagued the Economic Crimes Unit over the years, with the team expected to investigate around 100 cases every three months.

Only two inspectors used to work at the ECU, but this has now been doubled and will soon be increased to 12.

He said that while the Panama Papers and Pilatus Bank attracted a lot of media attention, the ECU considered other less spoken about cases, such as investigations into Portman Consultants and a Maltese pension fund for Swedish nationals, to be even more important.

“Around €520 million passed through Portman Consultants, and the Swedish pension case involved the defrauding of elderly victims,” he said. “An inspector spent three months working on that case alone and I even received parliamentary questions requesting updates on that case. You should spend some time in my shoes.”

“I worked a lot, Your Honour. I wasn’t satisfied at the amount of resources at our disposal, and it was only over the past year that people started appreciating the work we do.”

However, Judge Lofaro brushed off his explanations by arguing that he did “absolutely nothing” with regards the Panama Papers.

And at the end of the sitting, Judge Emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino asked whether police inaction had anything to do with “advice by the Attorney General [Peter Grech] to tread very carefully on the Panama Papers because there was trouble brewing the country”.

Abdilla said he never heard of this advice, but PN MP Jason Azzopardi, who attended the sitting in his capacity as lawyer for the Caruana Galizia family, called for Grech to resign. 

“Dr Peter Grech, Attorney General: you have brought the distinguished & impeccable reputation of the AG’s office into disrepute,” he said.

“I have no words strong enough to denounce your spineless, amoral boot licking of this Government.”

“You intentionally advised & warned Police not to prosecute for corruption Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri & Joseph Muscat in order to avoid unrest in the country. You contributed to Daphne’s murder.”

READ NEXT: Hundreds Of Passengers Board First Catamaran Leaving Malta For Sicily

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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