WATCH: PN Calls On Prime Minister To Sack Carmelo Abela Over Alleged HSBC Heist Links
The Nationalist Party has insisted that Carmelo Abela’s cabinet position is no longer tenable, after he was once again linked with the failed 2010 HSBC heist over the weekend.
On Sunday, the Times of Malta reported that the police were investigating claims that Abela had provided the would-be robbers with sensitive security information about the bank in order for them to plan the failed heist.
Abela had testified in the magisterial inquiry into the case in 2010, with the police having now requested the transcript of that testimony from the courts as part of their investigation.
Confronted about his testimony, which was given behind closed doors, last week, Abela claimed not to remember ever testifying before the inquiring magistrate.
Addressing a press conference earlier today, the party’s Home Affairs spokesperson Beppe Fenech Adami insisted that “nowhere in the democratic world” could one mind a sitting minister who has been linked with a hold-up that ended in a shoot-out in the streets with the police.
The PN, he said, was insisting that the minister should resign, or be sacked.
“We have a surreal situation where a minister is comfortable saying that he has forgotten about being asked to testify about a hold-up in the place where he used to work and a hold-up which was facilitated by evidence from within the bank itself,” Fenech Adami said.
“We have a situation where a minister thinks he can convince people out there that he does not remember his involvement in the investigation into this case.”
This fact alone, he said, was enough for Abela to step down.
What do you make of the PN’s statement?
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