Police Rummaged Through Muscat’s Daughters’ Schoolbags During Search, PL Whip Warns
Labour Whip Glenn Bedingfield has hit out at the police and Magistrate Gabriella Vella for the way a search on former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s home was carried out last week.
Addressing Parliament yesterday, Bedingfield accused Vella of breaking the judiciary’s code of ethics, which states magistrates and judges must carry out their duties “with dignity, courtesy and humanity”.
“How dignifying was it that police even searched through Muscat’s children’s schoolbags? What could they have found in the bags of two 14-year olds? What did they think they were going to find? Police seized their phones and searched their schoolbags right before they went to school. That’s dignity and humanity for you!”
Bedingfield, an old friend of Muscat, has become the first PL MP to significantly stick his neck out for the former Prime Minister after his home was raided in connection with a magisterial inquiry into the controversial Vitals Global Healthcare concession.
Former PL MP Joe Brincat has also alleged that Muscat’s human rights were breached because police turned up to his door at 7am, while Valletta Cultural Agency chairman Jason Micallef has urged PL supporters to take to the streets in protest.
Prime Minister Robert Abela has criticised the magistrate for ordering the seizure of Muscat’s daughters’ phones, warning that institutions must be careful not to lose the govrnment’s trust.
He warned that magistrate Vella may have “caved to pressure” imposed by the likes of civil society group Repubblika, which had requested the Vitals inquiry in the first place, and PN MP Jason Azzopardi.
Bedingfield claimed that Azzopardi had started whispering in people’s ears that Muscat would be subject to a search a few days before the search happened, an accusation which the former Prime Minister made in his initial reaction to the search.
The PL MP also questioned why Times of Malta journalists were on site before the police and claimed that Repubblika president Robert Aquilina was present too.
“Shouldn’t the Chief Justice investigate all of this?” Bedingfield asked. “They carry out so many inquiries, won’t they carry out an inquiry on itself and make sure it isn’t caving under pressure?”
In his speech, Bedingfield also lashed out at Standards Commissioner George Hyzler and Ombudsman Anthony Mifsud, accusing them of being the “de facto Opposition”.
“They have become the de facto opposition because the real Opposition has become so weak that it required the help of some institutions. Now we know that these institutions are also packed with people of trust; somehow it’s only PL’s people of trust which are bad and need to be regulated.”
“The Labour Party is always the underdog because the establishment is always against us. Certain institutions are uniting together to strengthen the anti-government campaign because the PN isn’t managing by itself.”
The Nationalist Party condemned Bedingfield for launching an “unprecedented attack” on the country’s institutions, warning he the MP is trying to intimidate them in their course of duty.
“Unless [Prime Minister] Robert Abela takes immediate action against the government whip, he will be complicit in this unprecedented attack,” the PN said.
“Robert Abela’s mask has slipped and it’s no wonder the government did its utmost not to discuss bills proposed [by the PN] in the wake of the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry. Their fear is now making them attack the very same institutions they were recently praising.”
Repubblika went a step further, warning that Bedingfield’s speech bears echoes of states en route from democracy to totalitarianism and dictatorship.
“It also reminds of Donald Trump’s recent accusations of a ‘deep state’ that prompted a violent threat to democracy in the United States,” it added, referring to last year’s infamous attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol.
Cover photo: Left: A family photo uploaded by Joseph Muscat on his birthday last weekend, Right: Government Whip Glenn Bedingfield
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