[WATCH] Degiorgio pardon requests will be processed ‘in line with the law’, PM says

Degiorgio pardon requests will be processed ‘in line with the law’, PM says

Prime Minister Robert Abela has said a request by the two Degiorgio brothers for pardons to reveal the role of a sitting minister and a former minister in major crimes, will be processed in accordance with constitutional law.

The comments come on the same day that Alfred and George Degiorgio filed a request for a pardon to tell all about the politicians involved in the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination.

The two men are accused of carrying out the car bomb that killed the journalist. A third hitman, Vincet Muscat ‘il-Kohhu’, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in jail in return for a pardon on other crimes that have now implicated the Agius brothers Adrian and Robert, and Jamie Vella, as procurers of the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia.

“I will not do the same as others and meet up with criminals in the middle of the night,” Abela said, referring to the 1994 meeting between former prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami and Joseph Fenech ‘il-Hafi’, who was granted a pardon to reveal who commissioned a hit on Fenech Adami’s assistant Richard Cachia Caruana.

The Degiorgio brothers addressed two separate letters to President George Vella asking for a pardon in return for concrete evidence on the Daphne Caruana Galizia case.

Alfred Degiorgio is claiming that he will name an ex-minister who commissioned the murder, as well as an unnamed middleman that has so far faced no charges in relation to the case, ruling out that person to be Melvin Theuma by saying he has not been granted a pardon. He further maintains that he has credible information on a theft and homicide, which involved an ex-minister and a sitting minister.

George Degiorgio similarly claims that he has information on the person who commissioned the murder, and the as-yet unnamed middleman. He maintains that he also has evidence on a separate homicide, specifically on who commissioned the murder as well as the person who executed it.

Abela said he will be consulting with the Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg and the Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà on the three pardon requests. “I will not base my judgment on what criminals tell me, I will act as required by the rule of law and as required by the constitution, and the three pending request for pardon will be processed in this manner,” Abela said.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, the Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi claimed in the House of Representatives that former Labour minister Chris Cardona was arrested by the Maltese police in 2010 in connection with the botched heist on the HSBC headquarters.

On the allegations made by Azzopardi, Abela said that in 2010 it was Lawrence Gonzi who was Prime Minister and John Rizzo who occupied the role of Police Commissioner, and so any questions should be directed to them. 

“They said that the institutions worked at the time, I doubt that,” he said. 

The PM also proceeded to hit out at the Opposition Leader Bernard Grech, who said that he would grant alleged Caruana Galizia murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech a pardon if it meant getting to the bottom of the case.  “He was cheap and immature,” Abela said. “There isn’t even a request for pardon from Fenech.”