Watch: My Clerk Client Is A Scapegoat For Driving Test Scandal, Joe Giglio Warns In New Interview
Nationalist MP Joe Giglio has argued the Transport Malta clerk he is representing in court as part of a driving test corruption case is being used as a scapegoat to protect bigger fish at the top of government.
“I’m representing a clerk who was receiving instructions from his superiors, who was in turn receiving instructions from his minister… we cannot create scapegoats to fight corruption,” Giglio said in a new interview with Lovin Malta which will be published soon.
“People cannot abuse their positions of power to create sacrificial lambs. It is my duty as lawyer and the duty of all of us as citizens to ensure that justice is served to whoever is responsible, but please let’s not create sacrificial lambs and scapegoats.”
Giglio’s client Raul Antonio Pace, as well as Transport Malta director Clint Mansueto and Ħaż-Żebbuġ councillor Philip Edrick Zammit, were charged yesterday for allegedly helping learner drivers pass their tests.
Mansueto has been charged over corruption and other offences, while the charges against Pace include complicity in trading in influence, having a private interest in adjudication or issuing of orders, and committing offences that, as public officers, they were duty bound to prevent.
All are pleading not guilty and have been suspended from Transport Malta.
Inspector Wayne Borg told the court that Mansueto said under questioning that he felt pressured to help certain people pass their test because they were working at a minister’s villa.
Giglio said he doesn’t know who the minister is and that he is disappointed that the court case was adjourned before he got a chance to cross-examine Inspector Borg.
“That was going to be my first question to him – who is this minister?” Giglio said. “Have you sent for him? Have you spoken to him? Have you investigated him?”
“These people are in the dock here. What have you done with those who, according to you, acted in the way that you are maintaining?”
He said the minister must resign and pledged to do his part to help bring whoever it might be to justice.
“I will make it a point to ensure that whoever was there is actually brought to justice, not create scapegoats. Aren’t you worried about the fact that you have a situation where we’re creating scapegoats? Doesn’t it annoy you? Doesn’t it bother you? Aren’t you willing to fight against it?”
Malta's Cabinet of Ministers meets at the start of the legislature
Giglio dismissed concerns that he has a conflict of interest in his dual roles as PN spokesperson for home affairs and defence lawyer for a government official charged with corruption.
“It is my duty to ensure, as a citizen of this country, with whatever hat I am wearing, that those who are corrupt are brought to justice, irrespective of the position they hold,” he said. “It is also my duty to ensure that we do not find minor clerks and use them to pretend that we are fighting corruption.”
“If we really want to fight corruption, let’s go to who was actually giving those instructions in order to ensure that those driving theory tests are played around with in the way we are hearing they were.”
“That is all of our duty and I will keep on doing it irrespective of what might happen or what people might feel they wish to criticise me over, when I am duty-bound to do so.”
“There is absolutely no conflict of interest because you rise above it. Those people who think there is a conflict of interest can’t understand that you rise above situations.”
“If we aren’t capable of rising above situations, then we are mediocre in the way we are acting and in the way we are thinking. Far from being a conflict of interest, a conflict of interest would exist if we keep our mouths shut and if I don’t ensure that justice is served to everyone and make statements to ensure that scapegoats aren’t being made to protect others.”
Cover photo: Left: PN home affairs spokesperson Joe Giglio, Right: Transport Malta’s Lija offices (Photo: TVM)
Do you think the mystery minister should resign if they are implicated in this case?
READ NEXT: Watch: First Close-Up Look At Gozo's Newest Dive Site, The Formerly Shipwrecked Hephaestus
