Giglio kicks up a storm with Efimova comments as NGOs and rivals hit back

Comments the PN’s home affairs spokesperson Joe Giglio gave to Heart 103FM in which he expressed “serious reservations” on the credibility of Maria Efimova, who famously told assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia the Panama company Egrant belonged to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s spouse, have brought out an army of critics.

Giglio, a one-time lawyer to the shuttered Pilatus Bank that briefly employed Efimova before accusing her of fraud, was elected in 2022 on both his constituencies.

But his criticism of Efimova as “a malevolent woman capable of getting herself into certain situations” irked some Nationalist MPs, as well as NGOs who have campaigned vigorously against corruption and kept the memory of Caruana Galizia alive.

“I had said back then that if the documents did exist, then no one would be able to see them but her,” Giglio said of Efimova’s claims on Egrant. “Backed as I was by crystal clear evidence that her claims that the bank hadn’t paid her were inaccurate, I had known Efimova as a person who can manipulate facts. However, I had hoped that perhaps she was telling the truth on the [Egrant] issue.”

Reactions to Joe Giglio’s statements came from fellow MP Karol Aquilina, whose brother Robert is president of anti-corruption NGO Repubblika, which has kept the memory of Caruana Galizia alive in its regular vigils. “Undermining the credibility of the Egrant whistleblower is not only highly irresponsible but also an insult to the memory of courageous journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and activists who have been fighting relentlessly for truth and justice.”

Nationalist MEP David Casa, who publicly took up Efimova’s case and visited her in Greece when she imprisoned on the strength of the Maltese EWA, did not refer to Giglio but hit out at his former clients Pilatus Bank. “Those fighting for truth and justice were insulted, ridiculed and even threatened because they stood up for what they believed in. Pilatus Bank remains a symbol of sheer corruption and a laundromat for illicit funds which destroyed Malta’s reputation.”

Occupy Justice, the activists who led the first vigils in the wake of the Caruana Galizia assassination, hit out at the MP over his past brief for Pilatus Bank. “He should have explained why the directors of the bank are still free to go about their daily business as if nothing happened,” they said in a reference to Pilatus owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, who was arrested and later acquitted in the United States of breaching Iran sanctions.

“No, Dr Giglio, we do not seem to share the same values, because whilst we did something about the rampant corruption that has infested our institutions, you were defending criminals. And now that you’re an MP, you seem to be more at home as an apologist for those who should resign – read: the Police Commissioner and Attorney General.”

Repubblika president Robert Aquilina also berated Giglio for his attempt at distancing the PN from the anti-corruption NGO.

“We brought down a corrupt prime minister: we did not fear Joseph Muscat’s populism, Keith Schembri’s bullying, the corrupt police corps, or the dirty cash of Yorgen Fenech... a criminal’s lawyer is not going to impress us either. He can defend criminals and ridicule those who stand up to them as much as he likes. The tragedy is that he is using his constitutional position to do this.”

Repubblika took Giglio to task, claiming that as Pilatus Bank’s former lawyer he had every interest in tarnishing the credibility of Maria Efimova.

“Giglio painted his former clients as some angels, when it was the ECB that shuttered their bank... when he represents his clients in court, Giglio does his utmost to show criminals as engels, but when he uses his credentials as MP to do that he is betraying his democratic role and has a conflict of interest.”

The former Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, also a lawyer for the Caruana Galizia family, and who failed to be re-elected in the same constituency as Giglio, said on Facebook that the PN had now “defended a corrupt bank and all its corrupt officials.”

“Rather than criticise the Commissioner of Police, the FCID and the Attorney General for not obeying a magistrate’s orders to arraign these directors on bribery and corruption, after a €7.5 million magisterial inquiry, the PN has defended this corrupt bank and praised the AG.”

Azzopardi called Giglio’s comments “a dark day in the glorious history of the PN, when it was taking the side of the corrupt and criminals.”