Speaker orders PN and Net News to correct reports claiming minister blamed magistrate over Swieqi raid

Speaker Anglu Farrugia has ruled that Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri did not blame a magistrate for a police raid in Swieqi that saw four innocent residents briefly detained by armed officers.

The ruling followed a request by Camilleri on Wednesday morning, after the Nationalist Party (PN) and its media arm Net News claimed he had pinned responsibility for the mistaken raid on the duty magistrate.

Farrugia said a review of the minister’s parliamentary remarks showed that Camilleri had merely read out the official police statement verbatim, without making any personal comment about the magistrate’s role.

“At no point did he say or imply blame on the magistrate, as was reported,” the Speaker said, noting that the reference in Camilleri’s speech came directly from Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa’s statement.

The Speaker ordered both the PN and Net News to amend their statements and reports to accurately reflect what the minister said while responding to a parliamentary question on the matter.

Swieqi raid under scrutiny

The case centres on a botched police operation in Swieqi that took place earlier this week. Four residents filed a judicial protest, describing how 15 heavily armed officers wearing balaclavas burst into their apartment, pointed guns at them and handcuffed them only to later confirm that none of them were suspects.

In a statement on Tuesday, the police force said the raid had been carried out under warrants issued by the duty magistrate.

That same afternoon, Camilleri urged MPs not to “jump to conclusions” and read the police statement in full, quoting the section referring to the magistrate’s warrants.

On Wednesday, Gafa clarified that the police had themselves requested the warrants and that while the raid took place at the correct address, the people inside were not the intended targets of the investigation.

PN stands by its interpretation

Following the Speaker’s ruling, the Nationalist Party said it had interpreted the minister’s comments “in the same way the majority of Malta’s media understood them”.

The Opposition reiterated that key questions remain unanswered, including whether the individuals who were actually under investigation were registered as living at the same address and whether errors in the government’s address database contributed to the mix-up.

The PN urged Camilleri to explain how such a serious mistake occurred and to clarify what measures will be taken to ensure similar incidents do not happen again.