‘Abela scandal the most serious of all’ – Prime Minister

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was adamant yet again that Labour deputy leader Toni Abela should take political responsibility for the now public recordings in which he is heard speaking about illegal activities that were never reported to the police.

The Prime Minister was in Zabbar where he visited a number of shops and the open air market. For a moment, the Prime Minister's visit in Zabbar was overshadowed by the presence of an independent candidate, Nazzareno Bonnici, who was welcomed by a little crowd outside a bar.

The secret recordings - in which Abela is heard saying he wrested a criminal report by a Labour club barman away from the police to pursue the matter civilly, and then talking about a drugs incident inside another party club - were "the most serious scandals that betrayed the PL's hypocrisy", Gonzi said today while on a tour of Zabbar shops.

"The difference between the PN and Labour, is that we take steps and inform the police of such illegal activities."

A recording broadcast yesterday on YouTube on Friday shows Abela talking of an incident in which he expelled a Labour club member for having allegedly brought drugs inside the club's kitchenette, drugs which were later disposed off in a rubbish bin by a member of the same club. Abela is heard implying that without any evidence at hand, there was little good from reporting the incident to the police.

The first recording shows Abela talking about going down to the Birkirkara police station to ask the police not to proceed on a criminal report filed by the Attard club's barman against a committee member for changing the locks to his bar: Abela is heard saying that he spoke to a police officer with Labour sympathies.

"The biggest scandal of all is that Abela went to the police to ask them not to take any [criminal] steps. I don't know of any bigger scandal than this," Gonzi said, in a week that is also dominated by the Enemalta kickbacks scandal.

But Gonzi himself has steamed on, safe in the knowledge that his recommendation of a presidential pardon for oil trader George Farrugia was the strongest tool the police could get to proceed in its investigation.

"The scandal is that Toni Abela says he had 'no evidence', so he took no action so that Labour would not be embarrassed. Even though he is a lawyer, and knows what the procedure is, he knew illegalities were going on and he did nothing over a drugs' report. And worse than that, Joseph Muscat is protecting Abela."

Gonzi reiterated his defence of transport minister Austin Gatt, who presided over Enemalta as energy minister in 2004 when the alleged kickbacks to a consultant of the state utility had been paid by oil company Trafigura.

"I believe minister Austin Gatt when he claimed that he never spoke about oil procurement with George Farrugia. Minister Gatt is a serious and upright person who knows when not to cross the line," Gonzi said.

Questioned on the fact that Gatt had not declared his Swiss 'bank account' since 2005 in his parliamentary returns, Gonzi said the minister "did not have anything to hide" and said that the minister's failure to declare the Swiss account was only a "mistake."

"He is supplying the Commissioner of Police with details of his Swiss funds... he inherited this account from his father. There are no strict rules of inheriting these accounts: all that matters is that there is proof that someone is a legal heir to a bank account."

Earlier, Gonzi crossed paths with Nazzareno Bonnici, better known as Tal-Ajkla, an independent candidate who will hold a mass meeting in Zabbar this afternoon. The Prime Minister wished the independent candidate the best of luck for his activity as Bonnici embraced Gonzi outside a shop.

While a number of people honked their car horns and chanted his name, Bonnici told journalists that he was expecting a crowd of around 250,000 persons for the mass meeting which will be held in Zabbar's main road at 4pm today.