Scuppered corruption investigations prove police an obstacle to justice, says Casa

MEP David Casa has ramped up pressure after it was revealed that a corruption raid ordered to take place on a state agency in connection with a corruption probe was stalled by the police.

“As more time passes, the Police Commissioner, responsible for prosecuting crime, instead continues to defend it. There is an agenda to protect Robert Abela’s predecessors which is trumping the integrity of the justice system. 

“It is nothing short of state capture by criminal interests.”

Casa wrote to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and to the Vice President in charge of the rule of law Vera Jourova. The letter follows a month of inaction from the Maltese police in the Vitals/Steward scandal, and further inaction on the Mozura wind farm scandal in Montenegro, when the Police Financial Crimes Investigations Department contradicted a magisterial order to search Enemalta premises.

“Despite evidence everywhere you look, of widespread corruption that robbed the Maltese blind, investigations appear to be scuppered,” Casa said in a letter to the Commission. “A raid was ordered by the inquiring magistrate in early December... To date, the Police Financial Crimes Investigations Department has refused to conduct it.

“In doing so, it has branded itself as a persistent spoke in the wheels of justice, stultifying the work of the magisterial inquiry for the sole reason of benefiting those in power, those criminals who have pillaged the state coffers.”

Casa slammed the Government for its fake on-paper reforms which were a despicable ploy to stave off scrutiny for the collapse in prosecuting high-level corruption committed by Labour Government officials, while praising those who have spent years fighting in the absence of an effective police force.

Casa recalled his letter to von der Leyen when she took office amidst the 2019 protests in the dying days of the Muscat administration.

“Malta was on the precipice then, and its descent as concerns the rule of law has been further accelerated by his successor’s inability to prosecute corruption, or worse still, his propensity to afford impunity to Muscat and his accomplices,” the letter ends.