Watch: ‘I Would Rather Go To Jail Than Expose My Sources’ – Robert Aquilina
Repubblika activist Robert Aquilina made it clear that he would rather go to prison than reveal who leaked the Pilatus Bank magisterial inquiry to him.
“Without a doubt,” Aquilina said, when Lovin Malta’s Tim Diacono posed him his question during a recent interview.
He said he has a moral obligation to protect his sources come what may, even if it means risking arrest and even jail time.
“I know what my rights are, and naturally if these rights are breached, I will seek legal remedies. However, it wouldn’t be my first time entering an interrogation room and if needs be, I will enter it again with my head held high.”
“I know that I am telling the truth and I will do my duty from start to finish with no fear. This wouldn’t be the first time that I risked getting arrested to do my duty. I knew there was a real risk of arrest when I published my Pilatus book one and a half years ago and I knew that the possibility of my arrest was discussed internally.”
“I was serene back then, I’m still serene now and I think people have now understood that I’m telling the truth.”
Aquilina confirmed he discussed the possibility that he could get arrested and imprisoned with both his family and other Repubblika activists before he published the book and commenced court proceedings.
“I have always said that we must do all it takes to get to our goal. Naturally, we should never be violent and we should always be respectful, but some people did much more than face arrest out of a sense of duty for society; some even lost their lives.”
“We will face that danger if and when it comes.”
Aquilina made it clear that while he has no trust in Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà, who he mocked as an “insurance policy to criminal politicians”, he does have faith in the integrity of several other police officers.
“I would like these people to eventually rebuild the police force. The police force isn’t Angelo Gafà; it is full of proper officers.”
Magistrate Nadine Sant Lia recently instructed the police to investigate how a copy of the Pilatus Bank magisterial inquiry, carried out by Ian Farrugia, was leaked to him.
In the same judgement, she dismissed Aquilina’s request for the police to charge four top Pilatus bank officials, including its owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, who were recommended for prosecution by Magistrate Farrugia.
“Since I published that book, the mantra of ‘where is the proof?’ has collapsed. “There is now a new mantra, that I shouldn’t be in possession of the proof to begin with, but that is an admission that the proof exists.”