Watch: ‘It’s Like Abela Wants To Stop Families From Reporting Thieves ’ – Robert Aquilina
Repubblika activist Robert Aquilina ripped into Robert Abela’s plan to reform the magisterial inquiry process, warning that the Prime Minister’s goal is clearly to “protect criminals”.
In an interview with Lovin Malta’s Tim Diacono, Aquilina compared the current political situation to a family catching a thief red-handed.
“Imagine a family finding their front door broken into and spotting a thief inside robbing the family gold. They try to stop him and he resists so they call the police and they come on site.”
“However, the thief ends up reporting the family to the police for defamation and, rather than arresting the thief, the police kick the family out.
“The thief is allowed to continue the robbing them, the police charge the family, and the next day the Prime Minister announces that he will change the law to make sure people who catch a thief at home cannot open proceedings against them. This is the situation we are living through.”
Although the bill to reform magisterial inquiries has yet to be published, Aquilina said that statements by government exponents have made it clear that they want citizens to report alleged crimes to the police, rather than request inquires.
“Did the police do their job in the past 11 years?” he questioned.
“Adrian Delia’s court case established that a robbery of three hospitals took place in collusion with the government,” he said. “However, the police commissioner acted as though this theft never occurred. He didn’t launch an investigation when this sentence was published, and when the magisterial inquiry we had requested was concluded, he didn’t even arrest or interrogate the people mentioned in it.”
“The police didn’t even read the inquiry. What kind of police commissioner is this? The government wants to dismantle the system, which already has checks and balances, and instruct people to go to the police because they know that the police are politically captured.”