Listen: Daughter Of Dockyard Tragedy Victim Calls Robert Abela’s Comments ‘Disgusting’
The daughter of a major Maltese dockyard tragedy in the 1990s has denounced Robert Abela’s recent political comments about the case as “disgusting”.
“It was completely disgusting. Did he bring it up again for his own personal advantage?” Mary Grace Sciberras said during an interview with NET TV’s Dione Borg.
Sciberras’ father Angelo Sciberras was one of nine workers who lost their lives during a gas explosion on the Um El Faroud ship in 1995.
Abela brought up the incident in a recent political rally in an attempt to contrast the public inquiry into Jean Paul Sofia’s death with the was previous PN governments had reacted to other tragedies.
“A GWU official told me to remind people about a particular incident in which nine workers died,” Abela said. “Not only was it at a government site, but all operations were under the government’s direct responsibility and surveillance.”
“Back then, although the state assumed responsibility, it made the victims go through Calvary to obtain compensation and relatives had to end up fighting them in court.”
The Prime Minister said that there wasn’t a public inquiry into the Um El Faroud tragedy, but rather a “maritime inquiry behind closed doors”, and that the PN government ended up in a legal battle against the inquiry experts because it didn’t pay them for their work.
However, Sciberras retorted that the inquiry was actually an open one and said she attended practically every sitting.
“Does the Prime Minister know what he’s talking about? Or is he trying to bring the victims into the mix for his personal gain? There was an open inquiry, not a closed one.”
Cover photo: Left: Mary Grace Sciberras (Photo: TVM), Right: Prime Minister Robert Abela
READ NEXT: PL MEP Alex Agius Saliba Accuses BirdLife Of Deception Over Finch Trapping Numbers
