Recordings of former PN mayor ‘wishing councillors dead’ submitted in court

Recordings in which former PN mayor Joanna Gonzi is heard wishing former Sliema councillors dead had been deposited in court

Martin Debono was stripped naked by the police. He was later told by the police that they had found nothing incriminating after their investigations.
Martin Debono was stripped naked by the police. He was later told by the police that they had found nothing incriminating after their investigations.
Joanna Gonzi recordings were submitted in court

When in 2012 recordings of then PN mayor Joanna Gonzi making disparaging comments about other councillors were leaked by the Labour media, Gonzi defended herself insisting that such words “were not in keeping with my character”.

In comments to the Times she had then said that the words had been taken out of context, but refused to say how.

The recordings aired by the Labour media heard Gonzi saying: “I want them dead. All of them… He can go f*** himself”, ostensibly referring to then Sliema Labour councillor Martin Debono and former mayor Nikki Dimech.

In a second recording released by Labour’s maltastar.com, Gonzi is heard wishing Debono’s mother “suffers a heart attack”.

MaltaToday is now in possession of video clips and copies of audio recordings which were deposited in court. The recordings reveal that Gonzi had been talking to then executive secretary Svetlana Curmi and Nationalist councillor Cyrus Engerer.

Engerer defected to Labour in 2011 but had retained his seat on the Sliema local council as an independent councillor.

Speaking to the two, Gonzi is heard saying “I want to ruin them… F*** I really want them dead all of them” at which point Engerer intervenes and says “hit them with a hammer”.

Joanna Gonzi, voice cracking, then turns to Curmi and tells her “I want to kill them Svet honestly I want to kill them”. She then proceeds to wish Martin Debono’s mother suffers a heart attack.

Gonzi’s disparaging comments go on: “He can go f*** himself for all I care”. When Engerer asks whether she’s referring to Martin Debono or Nikki Dimech, Gonzi replies both.

“They can both go together. They can do it your way if you want,” Gonzi tells Engerer, in reference to his sexual orientation.

In 2011, Martin Debono was arrested on suspicion of misappropriating a council laptop and was made to strip naked in front of police officers while in custody. Debono had been arrested along with then Nationalist councillor Yves Bobby Cali after they allegedly made personal use of two laptops bought by the council.

The arrest followed an investigation by the Internal Audit and Investigations Directorate into the Sliema council’s operations.

The review found irregularities and shortcomings in the way the council operated both under the mayorship of Nikki Dimech and before – but no fraud was detected.

During the same period, Dimech was facing charges of bribery over a council contract.