Police invite Ivan Grech Mintoff to share information on alleged medical visas racket

The Police have contacted Alleanza Bidla leader Ivan Grech Mintoff following his assertions that the “Libya medical visas scandal is just the tip of the iceberg”.

Grech Mintoff this morning held a press conference in Valletta, outside Europe House, to share his concern over the 80,000 Libyan visas issued by the embassy and permits for residency.

But while claiming that there were a number of “Libyan high-ranking military officers, ministers and people in high places within the Libyan government” willing to testify, Grech Mintoff confirmed with illum.com.mt that he had not approached the Police with the information he had seen.

Informed sources told MaltaToday that the Police called in Grech Mintoff this afternoon.

It is unclear why Grech Mintoff did not approach the police earlier, although he said that he “did not have the evidence in hand” but he had been “shown the evidence”.

Grech Mintoff said that he was “shown” copies of receipts, footage, voice recordings, Viber screenshots and other documents that would confirm the alleged bribery that went on.

“The medical visas racket is just the tip of the iceberg … the scandal reaches residence permits,” Grech Mintoff said.

According to Grech Mintoff, ‘whistleblower’ and Libyan businessman Khaled Ben Nasan, had approached both the government and the opposition but the claims were, reportedly, ignored. The whistleblower then approached Grech Mintoff – the latter argued that the Nationalist Party then jumped on the bandwagon to score political points.

Neville Gafa, the health ministry official at the centre of the allegations, has denied any wrongdoing.

In a letter to the Ministry for Health last April, Ben Nasan alleged that Gafa had started a new medical visa application process through which Libyans would send over their passports in advance and Gafa would charge varying prices.