On this night when the news broke of the freezing of assets of Keith Schembri, Brian Tonna and others we need to take a step back and realise that the information that led to this action has been in the public domain for at least three years.
On April 24th 2017, Daphne Caruana Galizia published a post entitled “BREAKING/Prime Minister’s chief of staff took kickbacks from Brian Tonna on sale of Maltese citizenship”. In that post, as the title describes, she detailed fact upon fact of how Keith Schembri had received kickbacks from Brian Tonna on the sale of citizenship.
The ball, you could say, was in the AG’s court. Action could and should have been taken. Instead we all know what would happen. Nothing. No prosecutions. No investigations. Keith Schembri would remain a key figure in disgraced PM Muscat’s kitchen cabinet and Brian Tonna’s Nexia would feature in many a government contract or consultancy until yesterday.
And Daphne Caruana Galizia would be murdered.
Reading this comment by Daphne has a spine-chilling effect. It thunders from beyond the grave and reverberates in our heads. There you have it. She knew that publishing these facts would not be enough. She knew that the police would do nothing with this evidence.
“It’s the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, so they’re not going to touch him.” Daphne was one of the select few who were aware at the time of the system of impunity that was already in place. Institutions had by then already been bent into submission. The saga was only about to begin.
Action by the police at the time might have prevented the disastrous vortex that was to follow.
Daphne Caruana Galizia began to die that night. She did not have to, but the nation was too blind to realize the possible consequences of this kind of revelation. Blinded by partisan bickering and by government propaganda the people would only serve as a fertile ground for institutional breakdown.
And murder.
This is what justice for Daphne is also about. We are a long way from that yet.
ADDENDUM:
This is how the lying lowlife scum reacted at the time. Thanks to @bugdavem on Twitter for the reminder.
4 replies on “Frozen too late”
“A hundred suspicions do not amount to a single piece of evidence.” — Aaron Bugeja
Jacques, I think that you are popping the champagne prematurely.
What was once a tolerable faux naif approach to commenting is now becoming intolerably irritating. 1. These are not suspicions but FACTS. 2. The only reason this might be too early is because there seem to be sufficient signs that the criminals got advanced warning and shifted their assets elsewhere. 3. There should never be champagne popping when the wheels of justice start to slowly grind back into motion 3 years too late. 4. If you prefer to hang on sycophantly to the skirts of criminals and murderers do as you wish but do not insult my intelligence with this kind of trolling.
1. My comment was based on the report in the Times of Malta: The court said it agreed with the attorney general that there was reasonable suspicion.
“Suspicion” — the Court’s word, not mine.
2) You could be correct on that. It will all come out at trial. (I just read that Schembri is under arrest, along with many others.)
3) We seem to be separated by a common language — over here, we use that term, “pop the champagne” when things went our way and we won. Not before.
4) That was unwarranted and baseless. I do not know these people other than by what has been written about them. (That does not mean that I have read all that has been written; I might be missing important information.)
But your use of “if you prefer to hang on sycophantly to the skirts of criminals and murderers” is way over the top.
[…] We are of course entitled to feel bitterness. The court order to freeze Keith Schembri’s assets handed down yesterday, was as many entirely correct commenters observed, four years late. Read this pertinent piece by Jacques Rene Zammit on that. […]