Labour MP asks for protection after distressing phone call
Labour MP Davina Sammut Hili asked for protection after a man accused of money laundering contacted her when she sought information in parliament about court exhibits that went missing.
She told parliament on Wednesday that, shortly after she made her request during question time, a person called her on parliament’s landline phone asking why she had made the question.
Visibly shaken, the backbench MP asked Speaker Anġlu Farrugia for the protection of the House.
Farrugia said this was a clear violation of the MP’s parliamentary privilege and he would ask the police to follow the case.
The MP later told Times of Malta the caller said he was Bernard Attard, who stands accused of misappropriating €1.2
million, fraud and money laundering. He denies the charges.
In reply to Hili’s question, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard said a laptop that had gone missing after being exhibited as evidence was lost but then found among other exhibits in another case.
“Subsequently, an application was made to file that evidence under the case it is related to,” Attard said.
It was an expert appointed by the court who lost the laptop and not a court employee, the minister said, noting he was referring to the case ‘The Police vs Bernard Attard’.