Muscat facing tough questions ahead of next week’s EU summit

ducted, were submitted by Ivan Grech Mintoff as evidence to back claims of highlevel corruption that he has long been investigating.

He was testifying in the libel cases instituted by Gafà against The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Gomes wrote in her correspondence, “Your decision not to conduct an investigation or even ask questions to the Maltese government and competent authorities on this specific case is extremely disappointing, given the gravity of the allegations.

“The European Commission has a clear duty to defend the integrity of the Schengen system. This racket case may harm the security of all European citizens, and greatly damage the reputation of our institutions.

“The decision by the Maltese Police not to initiate a criminal inquiry is extremely worrying. Given these elements, I urge you, again, to:

a) carry out an investigation, analysing the numbers referred in the documents, the statistics and numbers sent to the Commission and evidence which has been brought to public knowledge;

b) enquire Maltese authorities on steps taken to establish the truth about these allegations, ensure that the procedures to grant visas to third country nationals are duly followed and to punish exemplarily those found involved in engineering any kind of criminal activity and breaches of the Schengen visa system.”

Famed Brexiteer Nigel Farage also joined the act, writing on Twitter: “Outrageous that the Maltese are selling EU visas in Libya. How many ISIS supporters are among that number?”

Farage wrote the tweet as a comment attached to an article in a Slovak news portal, which cited a Slovak MEP’s mention of allegations concerning Maltese visas in Libya.

Parliamentary Secretary responsible for citizenship Julia Farrugia Portelli quickly replied to Farage by posting a graph showing that Malta had the EU’s highest visa rejection rate - 25.23 per cent. The next-highest rejection rate is Belgium’s, at 16.01 per cent.

“The number of visas is actually much, much less than you quoted. In reality Malta has a stringent process in place to deal with applications,” she said.

Grech Mintoff’s dossier, filed before Magistrate Francesco Depasquale this week, contains the transcripts of interviews with a number of Libyan nationals who claim they were made to pay for med- ical visas for treatment in Malta, treatment that was meant to have been given free of charge under a bilateral agreement to treat Libyans wounded in hostilities in Malta.

Dozens of Libyans, however, allege that they were made to make payments to government official Neville Gafà to secure their medical visas to enter Malta and receive treatment.

The newspaper’s reportage saw Gafà file two civil libel cases against its editor and even a criminal libel case, which was dropped because of a change in legislation provided for by the new media act, which did away with criminal libel.

The dossier presented in court on Monday points to high-level corruption from within the Office of the Prime Minister and the health ministry, where Gafà respectively is and has been employed.

The near 100-page report explains in detail how the racket operated and the kind of sums that were allegedly being requested by Gafà, which ranged from a few thousand euros to over a million.

But it does not stop there, as the report also includes allegations about the illicit sale of Maltese visas from the Maltese consulate in Tripoli.

“The apparent illicit sales of visas by persons close to the Prime Minister calls into question the very security of the Schengen Zone. I hope and pray that no terrorists gained access to the EU with visas issued by Malta,” Grech Mintoff commented.

“Furthermore, I believe we have a duty to help those children and adults who were in dire need of medical treatment and didn’t get their medical visas because their families couldn’t afford the bribes and as a result were disabled or died.”

The racket was netting big money for those participating in it, the dossier, which is currently doing the rounds of the Europe’s political establishment, alleges.

It is claimed in the dossier that at least five Libyan national are ready and willing to testify that Gafà requested money for medical visas, and that they have not been contacted by the Maltese police even though their allegations were known to the police.

One of the witnesses states that Gafà requested €3 million to be paid into a bank account and for consequent payments of €3,500 to be made for each medical visa that was to be issued, a sum that was later reduced to €3,000 per visa, after some haggling.

In another transcript filed in court, another witness claims that Gafà requested €1,750,000 for the issuance of 22 medical visas, and that he got just what he asked for.

Many other witnesses, the dossier says, are also willing to come forward and tell their stories but they fear repercussions by the Maltese authorities.

According to the document: “As the formal issuers of the visas, the Maltese authorities could easily revoke their visa and would be right – legally – to do so, based on these witnesses’ own admission of their method of obtaining the visas.”

As such, some witnesses say they will only come forward if they are given some form of guarantee that they will be protected. Grech Mintoff says that the European Union could intervene to give the necessary protection.

The document filed in court proposes: “Given the importance of the functioning of the visa system and the witnesses lack of trust in the Maltese government, it might be wise and prudent for the European Commission to provide some form of guaranteed anonymity – or, some form of amnesty or pardon – that ensures that the witnesses can testify without the fear of deportation or losing their present rights.”