Sant 'disgusted' by court sentence

Labour leader Alfred Sant said yesterday the Labour parliamentary group was expressing solidarity with Labour MP Joe Mizzi and showing its disgust over a court decision last week regarding a policeman who had attacked Mr Mizzi's residence.

Speaking in parliament on the adjournment, Dr Sant said that police constable Mark Anthony Buttigieg attacked Mr Mizzi's home in April last year. Although Mr Buttigieg's guilt was proven and he was a police officer whose responsibility it was to prevent such crime, he was only fined Lm100 for his actions.

The court even said that although it could send Mr Buttigieg to prison for three months it did not think it should, and it recommended that he should not be dismissed from the police force.

Last Thursday, Mr Buttigieg was fined Lm100 by the court, which found he had caused Lm5 worth of damage to Mr Mizzi's back door, threatened Mr Mizzi's family, breached the peace and committing a crime he was duty bound to prevent.

Dr Sant said that he was disgusted at such things which showed there were first and second class citizens. It was shameful that an MP was attacked and the court acted like nothing had happened. It was not acceptable for the court to treat such a case in this manner.

The same thing had happened regarding Enemalta financial controller Tarcisio Mifsud, who had been projected as a Labourite and was beaten immediately after the 1998 elections. Three people had attacked him in his own home. One was acquitted and two were fined Lm25 each.

Such events, the opposition leader said, placed serious doubts on whether justice really existed in the country.

Dr Sant also criticised Government Investments Minister Austin Gatt for refusing to place on the Table of the House the unaudited accounts of Gozo Channel for October 2003 to September 2004.

Dr Sant said he asked for the accounts in a parliamentary question twice but Dr Gatt said he would not be making the accounts public since they contained commercially sensitive information. Yet Dr Gatt had given a press conference on the basis of those accounts during which he boasted of the improvements being made by the company.