National Bank heir slams judiciary: ‘Not one MP has ever been processed by the courts’

Jeremy Cassar Torregiani has taken aim at Malta’s judiciary, claiming the country ranks above Russia, Turkiye and Azerbaijan in protecting individuals who violate human rights rather than their victims.

Speaking on TVM’s Xtra, Cassar Torregiani cited former European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello, who has frequently criticised parts of Malta’s judiciary for their approach to fundamental rights.

He went further, arguing that since independence “no MP has ever been processed and served by the Maltese courts”, notwithstanding the criminal proceedings currently faced bt former MPs, former parliamentary secretaries and ex-prime minister Joseph Muscat. He noted that even Muscat has publicly lamented the state of the judiciary.

The episode focused on the recently concluded National Bank court case, which ended in favour of the heirs of the bank’s former shareholders. But Cassar Torregiani said the ruling came too late for most of those directly affected, many of whom died long before the judgement.

He recalled the personal impact on his own family, including his grandfather’s death shortly after learning of then-prime minister Dom Mintoff’s moves to take over the bank in the 1970s. He said many shareholders belonged to the upper-middle and upper classes, which contributed to public apathy when their investments were wiped out and delayed meaningful compensation.

Cassar Torregiani said Eddie Fenech Adami’s incoming administration in 1987 had prioritised other reforms over addressing the rights of the ex-shareholders. The PN remained in power for 25 years, and “they could have appointed three judges” to prevent a decades-long delay in justice, he argued.

He emphasised the National Bank’s role in Malta’s post-war economic development, describing its lending portfolio as central to the country’s first major economic boom. In 1973, he said, the bank had £M40 million in loans, equivalent to around €6 billion today, extended across thousands of clients, not just its 285 shareholders.

Recounting the bank’s rapid collapse in December 1973, he claimed Mintoff personally intervened in a Castille meeting with National Bank directors and the Central Bank. According to Cassar Torregiani, Mintoff told directors: “From now on, I am going to tell you what to do,” insisting they hand over their shares without compensation on the grounds that the bank’s equity was worthless.

‘This book is an act of justice’: Karl Schembri discusses Eħlisna mid-Deni

Writer and former MaltaToday editor Karl Schembri also appeared on Xtra to discuss his new book Eħlisna mid-Deni, which explores themes of abuse, mental illness and institutional failure.

Schembri described the book not as therapy but as “a sense of justice” he says was denied to him and his sister by the courts, psychiatrists and state institutions in relation to his father’s mental illness and abuse.

The book blends autobiographical elements with fiction, exploring his childhood, the inherited trauma of a father abused by a priest, and events that ultimately led to his mother’s death. Schembri said he also revisits issues he investigated as a journalist, including clerical abuse, “still a major taboo” in Malta, he argued, with the Church yet to acknowledge its complicity.

Schembri, who has lived abroad since 2009, now works with the Norwegian Refugee Council in Kenya after years in conflict zones across the Middle East and Africa. His humanitarian work, he said, has given him “a different perspective on humanity… diplomacy and governance, immigration and asylum”.