MLP hits out at new Pullicino Orlando comment

The Labour Party said today that Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was continuing to "lie" in the Mistra case.

The party referred to Dr Pullicino Orlando's second post in timesofmalta.com last Sunday (under the story MLP asks Gonzi, Pullicino Orlando, to explain timesofmalta.com comment) where he said that it was not true that before the general election he had denied knowledge of the Mistra project.

In his post Dr Pullicino Orlando wrote:

"I own a plot of land near the sea which has been rented out to others for some time now. Three years ago, these others applied for a permit to build an underground lavatory and an open air dance floor less than two metres high.' This is a quote taken from a 'Talking Point' entitled 'Street Corner Gossip' which I wrote and the Times published on 1/3/08. I declared I knew about the application which the Labour Party attacked me with (which is simply a paved area and a stand less than two metres high with wooden flooring and with a capacity of a few hundred people-not thousands as claimed by Dr. Alfred Sant) before Alfred Sant held his famous press conference at Mistra after he had given me the slip in Gozo. How some people can persist in saying that I said I knew 'absolutely nothing' is beyond me."

The MLP said that in contrast, on March 1 in his first reaction to Dr Sant's comments about Mistra, Dr Pullicino Orlando first declared he had nothing to do with the Mistra disco project and then he added that he did not even know exactly what the project involved.

The MLP issued a word for word transcript of Dr Pullicino's remarks at the time, saying that before March 8 Dr Pullicino Orlando had done everything he could to distance himself from the project.

Now, seven weeks after the election, through his comments on the website, Dr Pullicino Orlando was trying to give the false impression that he had never hidden anything.

Facts which emerged after the election confirmed that Dr Pullicino Orlando was actually the prime mover behind the project and, according to media reports, had made pressure for the development permits to be issued, the MLP said.

That Dr Pullicino knew everything about the project also emerged from the contract for the lease of the land, siged last January 17, more so as over the 15 year lease he was to receive €1.9 million, the MLP said.