Medical visas scandal: Government ‘in absolute denial of the truth’ – Alleanza Bidla

The Office of the Prime Minister has sunk to its lowest levels and is in “absolute denial of the truth” after it claimed that it had no indication of any correspondence with the Libyan government over the alleged medical visas racket, Alleanza Bidla said.

The party also published an official visa request sent to Neville Gafa, the health ministry official at the centre of the allegations, on behalf of a Libyan minister and four other Libyan nationals, and said that it has additional documents to subsantiate its claims on the alleged racket.

In a statement this afternoon, ‘Alleanza Bidla’, a Eurosceptic formation whose candidates unsuccessfully contested the 2014 MEP elections, said it was “most audacious” for the government to tell the Opposition to verify Ivan Grech Mintoff’s claims independently before using the allegations against the government, and insisted that the government should desist from its “misinformation exercise”.

The government’s statement was issued on Saturday after Alleanza Bidla leader Ivan Grech Mintoff told journalists that witnesses who hold evidence and information about the alleged medical visas scandal involving Neville Gafa, a health ministry official, are “scared” and have no trust in the Maltese authorities investigating the case.

Grech Mintoff, who was speaking on behalf of a Libyan national who he described as a “whistelblower”, said at least five Libyan ministers were willing to reveal details of the alleged racket. He said Libyan nationals who have evidence on the case are scared of having their Maltese visas revoked while the unnamed Libyan ministers have not been granted access to Malta.

Grech Mintoff’s claims were however shot down by the government, which on Saturday, claimed that it had no indication of any Libyan officials who used official channels to express concerns about the medical visas scandal.

“The government would do much better to stop this misinformation exercise to its own people who by now are able to judge as to who is being credible and who is not, and should by now be asking its own government to come out with the whole truth and not keep defending those who have done much harm to Malta and its reputation,” it said.

Read more: Medical visa ‘whistleblower’ says witnesses scared of spilling beans

Gafa 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.

Alleanza Bidla also took the government to task for failing to accept Libyan national Hussein Musrati as Libya’s chargé d’affaires.

The government has so far refused several requests by Musrati to be reocgnised as Libya’s chargé d’affaires, and has instead recognised Habib Mohammed Al-Amin as the Libyan diplomat representing the UN-backed government in Libya. Consulate services in Malta are provided by the embassy’s premises in Ta’ Xbiex, as listed on the website of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

“If, as it states, the Maltese government holds very good relationships with the Libyan authorities then it should, with immediate effect, accept all three Libyan government’s formal and diplomatic requests to appoint Hussein Musrati as their combined and sole representative in Malta,” it said.

The party said the government opted to recognise someone who was rejected by all three governments of Libya.

It also alleged that contrary to the government’s claims, there was official correspondence between the Libyan governments the Maltese government “as per the usual channels” with regards to the chargé d’affaires.