‘Prime Minister should remove Carmelo Abela pending police heist investigation’ – Bernard Grech

Bernard Grech is insisting that the Prime Minister should remove Carmelo Abela from Cabinet pending police investigations into claims he was involved in the HSBC heist.

The Opposition leader was reacting to Abela’s explicit mention by murder suspects George and Alfred Degiorgio in a letter to the Justice European Commissioner.

The Degiorgio brothers wrote to the European Commission to lament Cabinet’s conflict of interest when denying them a presidential pardon. They claim to have direct information on the involvement of Abela in the planning of the 2010 heist and how he allegedly supplied the criminals with confidential information and equipment that was essential to the crime.

The brothers also claim to have direct knowledge of former minister Chris Cardona’s involvement in the same heist and the commissioning of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination in 2015, which eventually fell through.

Grech said the Prime Minister could not stand by idly in front of these serious allegations.

“Robert Abela cannot allow Malta’s reputation to continue taking one hit after another with his minister implicated in a very serious crime. This does not only cast a dark shadow on the minister and Robert Abela but it also casts a shadow on our country,” Grech said.

He urged the Prime Minister to put the national interest above anything else and at the very least remove Minister Abela from Cabinet until police investigations are concluded.

“Our country cannot have a minister with such a heavy shadow hanging over him. These are accusations without precedent on a sitting minister and Robert Abela’s indecision continues to confirm that he has his hands tied,” the Opposition leader said.