PN keeps Safi drugs incident on political agenda

The Nationalist Party is keeping up its attack on Labour leader Joseph Muscat after he expressed regret at the way an incident in which an illegal substance inside the Safi party club led to the sacking of its barman, was handled.

Nationalist MP Clyde Puli, flanked by PN executive committee president Marthese Portelli and PN candidate Claudette Pace, today accused Muscat of double-standards in the way the matter was handled by deputy leader for party affairs Toni Abela, who was heard on a secret recording saying that the alleged substance abuse was not reported to the police because members of the Safi club had disposed of it in a rubbish bin.

"If Muscat forced out Anglu Farrugia (deputy leader for parliamentary affairs) on a mere statement, then why is he not asking for Abela's resignation?" Puli said.

"Farrugia was removed in an act of 'cold-blooded' murder, but Muscat claims that had Abela been a candidate he would have withdrawn his candidature."

Puli - who claimed Muscat had to take responsibility for "drug trafficking" - said it was not unrealistic to ask for the Labour leader's resignation.

"We know the drugs were being 'cut'," Puli said, referring to the recording in which Abela mentions an episode where somebody was 'cutting a white block'. "It could have ended up anywhere in the hands of our youths."

"It's all about foresight, not hindsight. A prime minister must be able to take good decisions at the time they are called for. Muscat could become prime minister and yet he has already made a series of wrong decisions on the EU, the euro, local councils, VAT and also stipends."

Puli also emphasised the fact that  the Labour Safi club is located close to a school, implying that Labour's decision to not report the case to the police had a detrimental effect on the health of the children who attend that school.

The incident was made public in a secret recording of Abela speaking to members of the Attard club committee back in 2010, which was also delivered at the same time to the Commissioner of Police. In the recording Abela is heard saying that a barman had been sacked in 2009 after the illegal substance was discovered inside the bar's kitchen.

Abela also said he didn't go to the police because the illegal substance had been disposed of there and then, before he was informed of the case.

Since then, no steps were taken by the police, who were handed the recording in 2010.

While Muscat originally denied knowledge of the case, he later said that when he realised the case pertained to the Safi club, he admitted knowing of the case: the PN later issued correspondence from the barman Richard Vella in which he complained to Muscat, and later met him, about his sacking.

It has not been established whether trafficking actually took place, or whether this was a case of possession: according to his own letter to Muscat, Vella claimed "somebody produced white powder inside the bar".

In a reaction, Labour said that the PN’s press conference had produced "nothing of substance or anything relevant for PL to respond to... In the final 11 days of the campaign the PL and Joseph Muscat remain completely focused on articulating the positive case for change which this country needs to hear."

Questions on the PN's decision to take out a €250,000 from Nazzareno Vassallo's company Vassallo Builders Group Ltd - specifically as to whether this created an obligation from the party to the construction magnate - were left unanswered by Marthese Portelli, the president of the PN's executive committee. "The secretary-general and Prime Minister have already answered these questions."

She also dodged questions regarding whether the PN would publish the loan agreement by insisting that such a decision fell under the remit of the administrative council, and she, as the president of the executive committee, could not make that decision.