“The courts, not us, must decide whether Abela and Cardona are innocent or guilty but we can contest the fact that the criminals who are implicating the two politicians in the heist weren’t heard out and probably won’t be heard out by the courts,” he said. 

“The AG entered into a deal with a criminal who wasn’t ready to expose anyone, while ignoring what other criminals declared they are ready to testify about.”

Aquilina said that police officers and the Malta Police Union were angry at the plea deal, given that Debono had fired 65 shots at officers during the heist.  

“We have no doubt that honest and hardworking people at the AG’s office are angry too, and it’s a shame that they’re being smeared in this way,” he said. “We are calling for Buttigieg’s resignation because it cannot be that the work of these people is being tarnished as a result of deals that only criminals benefit from.”

He said Repubblika intentionally waited until Debono’s testimony against Muscat before calling a protest because they wanted to give Buttigieg the benefit of the doubt.

“However, yesterday people realised that justice wasn’t served at all by the plea and that the Attorney General wiped 20 years imprisonment off Topo’s sentence simply so that he can remain silent. Everyone now realises that this deal was an obscene betrayal of justice,” he warned. 

Debono was charged today with being a prevaricating witness and immediately pleaded guilty.

However, his lawyer Edward Gatt argued that Debono cannot be blamed for the fear he felt in exposing all his accomplices seeing as “everyone knows what sort of people these are”.

The Nationalist Party today also called for Buttigieg’s resignation.

Cover photo: Repubblika 

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