[WATCH] Adrian Delia wants Prime Minister to hand laptop, servers over to police

Adrian Delia wants Prime Minister to hand laptop, servers over to police

Nationalist Party (PN) Adrian Delia said on Tuesday evening that he expected the Prime Minister to hand over his laptop and server to the police as part of the investigation into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Delia was addressing a press conference in reaction to The Daphne Project – an investigation by a consortium of 18 media organisations that is continuing the stories started by Caruana Galizia – where he was asked about admissions by the Caruana Galizia family that they were in possession of the murdered journalists’ laptop.

“I know the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia said the laptop and server which are pertinent to the investigation are the Prime Minister’s and I expect the Prime Minister to immediately submit his laptops and servers to the police for investigation. If it were me, this is what I’d do,” said Delia.

The PN leader stressed that while the party would not be “speculating or jumping to conclusions” would continue asking pertinent questions. Delia stopped short of asking for Cardona's resignation.

He said however that one needed to ask whether it was the case that the suspects knew they were going to be arrested, and whether Economy Minister Chris Cardona had spoken to any of them, both before and after the assassination.

“We must know whether or not the Prime Minister was involved and if so why he remained silent. And if he wasn’t, why it is that he was not informed,” he said. “Is it or is it not true that the state knew what was going to happen.”

Read also: Government rejects request for ministerial statement on murder allegations

Delia said the country deserved to know, while insisting that no amount of money or economic growth could erase the fact that Malta was no longer a normal country.

He accused the government of remaining silent in the face of pertinent questions on the government’s relationship with Pilatus Bank and other “shady characters”, asked by PN MPs Jason Azzopardi and Simon Busuttil

“The government remains silent, and does not answer,” he said. “Every now and then it comes up with distractions like laws to kill embryos.”

The Opposition, he said, would continue asking questions, and that “no Speaker or Parliament would silence the Opposition”. 

He insisted that Malta’s “culture of silence” could not be allowed to continue. “We are not living in a normal country, and no amount of money or surplus – if it exists – will blind the Opposition.

“People need to know whether the Prime Minister knew what was going to happen and whether Chris Cardona spoke before and after to those accused with the murder.”

Democratic Party statement

In a statement, the Democratic Party (PD) “condemned the fact that the government is ignoring several investigative and analytical articles by the international media regarding the brutal assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

It insisted that a ministerial statement regarding the allegations needed to be given by the government. The PN added that while it did not condone the government’s behaviour, it had chosen not to leave Parliament like the PN had done, but had remained in the chamber to act as the voice of the chamber.