Joe Gaffarena says PN leader tried to blackmail him to attack John Dalli

Joe Gaffarena told a court that leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil attempted to blackmail him in order to attack former Nationalist minister and EU Commissioner John Dalli

He was testifying in a libel case Dr Busuttil filed against lorizzont editor Josef Caruana.

The libel case concerns an article which was originally published in It-Torċa entitled ‘Rikatt abusiv Nazzjonalista’ (An abusive Nationalist blackmail) on 2 August, 2015, and in which it is alleged that Dr Busuttil met Joe Gaffarena before the last election to blackmail him.

The story was carried in features on One TV, One Radio, as well as l-orizzont. Dr Busuttil filed a total of five separate libel proceedings against the media houses.

At the time when the libel cases were filed (3 August, 2015) Dr Busuttil insisted that the story was “a lie from start to finish”.

“It is a pure invention without a crumb of truth. I filed libel suits for truth to win against the Labour Party’s lies,” Dr Busuttil said.

“I am proud that I had the courage to say no to Gaffarena when he asked me to issue a permit for the illegally-built petrol station, at a pre-election meeting at his request”

Asked whether or not he was disappointed with the then Nationalist government, who did not grant him the necessary permits for his petrol station but rather issued a notice to stop works. Mr Gaffarena said that “Only Labour is honest nowadays. They removed my permit for nothing, when others had the same problems. Do you know how much money I gave the PN? I gave the party €20,000 and Lawrence Gonzi and Joe Saliba were a witness to this.”

“So you thought that you deserved an illegal permit because you donated money?” Dr Peter Fenech, representing Dr Busuttil, asked.

“Just like the others,” Mr Gaffarena replied.

When asked whether or not the current government provided him with said permits regardless of the fact that the same illegalities that were present before were present then, Mr Gaffarena confirmed that this was the case, and said this was possible as he put down a €500,000 guarantee on the property.

He was then asked whether or not he spoke to anyone regarding the petrol station after the election, and who informed him of the guarantee.

“I never met with Joseph Muscat, and I never met Michael Falzon either,” Mr Gaffarena said. Dr Fenech then made reference to former minister Dr Joe Cassar’s testimony when he said that he met him and provided him with the Mepa documents related to the petrol station.

Mr Gaffarena denied these claims saying that he requested the ‘Dalli papers’.

Dr Fenech also asked Mr Gaffarena questions regarding the affidavit he signed in the presence of Notary Mario Bugeja in August 2015. When asked who else was present Mr Gaffarena said he had forgot, when Dr Fenech pressed for answers Mr Gaffarena said that he remembered people were there, but forgot who, telling the court that he is “an old man”.

“Over here I ask the questions and you answer. Was your son there?” Dr Fenech said.

“I don’t remember,” Mr Gaffarena said.

“You remember certain details and you forget others,” Dr Fenech replied.

The case continues in April.