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PN expected to release more Abela recordings
After YouTube release, PN could release new Toni Abela recording.
Toni Abela
The Nationalist party is expected to release more recordings of Labour deputy leader for party affairs, in a bid to put more pressure on Toni Abela as he faces accusations of having told a police officer not to proceed on a report filed by a PL member he has since suspended from the party.
Abela, whose role in the party includes managing the network of party clubs, claims he intervened to tell a police officer that a report filed by the barman of the Attard club, Richard Vella in 2010, against local councillor John Bonnici, was not a criminal but a civil case.
Vella had reported Bonnici for changing the locks to his bar.
But Vella - charged in court for his role in a brawl with Bonnici - told the court last week that Abela had told the police not to press charges on this incident.
Vella produced a secret recording of Abela himself saying he had intervened with the police, during a confidential meeting with Attard club committee members at the Labour HQ. Nationalist whip David Agius, who hails from Attard, has also declared that in 2010 he personally went to the Commissioner of Police to confirm that the voice of Toni Abela was clearly recognisable in the recording.
But no action was ever taken by the Commissioner of Police on the recording, which Toni Abela has insisted does not imply he did not anything wrong. "This was a purely civil case which I asked police to consider not take steps on, because it was not a criminal matter."
Abela is facing pressure from media fronts with the Nationalist Party employing a strategy to slowly release more excerpts from a longer recording, possibly through the independent media or yet again on YouTube.
Initially the recording was broadcast on YouTube by a sock puppet user 'kristianbuhagiar', ostensibly a vehicle for anti-Labour propaganda. The video itself is not publicly available on a YouTube search, but can only be viewed by those who share the link itself.
Bondiplus presenter Lou Bondì set much store in bringing to public attention the existence of the clip through his Facebook page. Last Tuesday, he fired off a series of questions at Abela in which he also alleged the deputy leader had "attempted to corrupt an officer", which Abela has vehemently denied. "I took no material advantage from this situation," Abela said.
Later on Tuesday evening, Bondiplus on PBS was dedicated to the Abela recording, while Abela himself has so far appeared on TVHEMM on Tuesday evening (a programme produced by Bondiplus producers Where's Everybody) and on TVAM on Wednesday morning.
Abela opened several broadsides against the PN administration, insisting that no calls for resignations were made when the PN government paid itself a €500 honoraria increase, or when the BSWC scandal was making headlines.
He has also accused the PN of not having reported the use of its Mosta club as a pole dancing bar, to the police, which had to intervene to shut down the bar in 2010.
Abela said that it was commonplace for lawyers to mediate between clients and other persons by requesting that police do not press charges or proceed with the case. Abela also insisted that at no point did he intentionally seek out a Labour police officer in order to request that police do not press charges against the person involved. "When I called the police station I did not agree with someone to drop by the next day. I went there and then. And when I got there, I found out the police officer was a Labour supporter because he told me so."
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Much, much serious than this affair is the email sent erroneously to Jason Micallef (in lieu of Jason Azzopardi, for those who conveniently forgot) asking Ministers to give personal information of Maltese citizens calling at Ministries and Government Departments to the PN Secretariat in full violation of the Data Protection Act. Paul Borg Olivier did not resign, and he is still carrying out his silly work at the Secretariat. And the PN is expecting Toni Abela to resign because of an internal PL party club matter! Shame on you all for this consistent character assassination policy which has been the hallmark of GonziPN. However, it is the people who will finally decide who is the cleaner of the two parties at election time.
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Hallihom ghidu, Toni. Kullhadd jaf kemm int bniedem onest u genwin. Dawk qatta demel li qed jghamlu minn kollox biex int tirrizenja. Tpaxxihomx.
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toni is a deputy leader of the pl and he should not have done that thing. even more he should not have lied saying that he did not do it and after the recording it resulted that he did it. RESIGN PLEASE LIKE ANGLU DID.
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Min meta l hawn kwistjoni ta barman saret ta interss nazzjonali? Jien nahseb li hu aktar importanti naraw min ghandu ir-responsabilta politika ta miljuni ta serq ta ewro li kisser hafna familji: l-unika tkissir li kien hemm fil-kwistjoni tal-barmen kien il-kantnazz! Biex tiskungura GonziPN tridt kun pur! Vera tad-dahk jekk mhux tal-biki!
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I cannot understand why the PL is replying to this silly case on PBS Bondiplus and Peppi's poodle TVHEMM
as if by now not everybody knows what the agenda of these PN Stooges is!
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S'issa ghadni ma nistax nifhem fejn irid jasal il-PN b'dan il-kaz li ghalija huwa frivolu u minghajr laham hdejn kazi simili li jigru. Sew najdu li Malta zghira u n-nies mgharufa.Dan il-kaz ta’ Toni Abela jidher li gie minfuh daqs ‘hot air balloon’specjalment mil-programmi ta’ xandir Malta b’din tiehu post ir-rizenja tal-Papa fejn giet imtella fl-ewwel post ta’ l-News ta din il-gimgha b’cover ta’ izjed minn 8 minuti (prime time) wara kwazi il-programm totali ta’ TVHEMM u t-tqanziha ta’Marthese Portelli bil-kollaborazzjoni tal-prezentatur….u din…. wisq probabbli biex l-opinjoni pubblika tigi zvijjata minn dawk il-kazijiet l-ohra li huma bil-wisq akbar u izjed serji minn kaz semplici u minghajr sugu ghax apparti li gara (2) sentejn ijlu Toni Abela ghamel dak li seta biex jevita li jkun hemm aktar problemi mill-individwi li kienu fil-kwistjoni , hadd ghadu ma jaf x’kienu l-problemi li wasslu biex Toni Abela kecca lill dan l-inividwu li wara sentejn perrec recoding ta’ dak l-inkontru. Illum anke fil-qrati ta’ Malta kemm jista’ jkun ikun hemm medjazzjoni biex kazijiet jigu solvuti ‘out of court’. Mhux kullhadd jaf li pressjonijiet jezistu kullimkien. Buzzieqa ohra tas-sapun. X'valur jista' jkollu dan il-kaz biex jevita it-telfa tal-PN anke jekk iqassmu kopja tar-recording f'kull dar bhal ma ghamlu lill-programm elettorali.
Joseph Pellicano •
Ghadni ma nistax nifem ghalfejn il PL qiad jati kas ta dan il hmieg mil PN. Dawn ghandom radam ghaffarijit fuq xix jirrizenjaw. Izjed ma ittuom importanza izjed jamlu, tatux kasom halluom jivgaw fdemom ghax jafu li waslet tahom.
