‘Hunger striker’ wants Gatt to resign

A Cospicua man suffering from HIV and toxoplasmosis, a rare, stroke-like condition, claims to be on hunger strike until Transport Minister Austin Gatt resigns over the transport reform.

In a video posted on You Tube, Emanuel Cini said he was on a hunger strike at his “prison” – his home.

He recorded the video after speaking to weekly Maltese-language newspaper Illum, where he said he used to catch bus 22 to Marsascala. There, he used to take a dip in St Thomas Bay and receive therapy at Inspire.

However, he claims not to have caught a single bus since the new service started, as it takes three buses to get there, and he could not risk staying out in the sun because of his condition.

“I want the resignation of Austin Gatt and I want the Prime Minister to do his job and fire him himself for his sheer incompetence,” Mr Cini says on the video.

“He wanted a House of Commons salary but I see no House of Commons behaviour here,” Mr Cini adds, echoing Labour leader Joseph Muscat’s comments on the Cabinet.

When contacted Mr Cini said he did not want to speak to The Times as he had stopped reading the paper after it reported an article by a Catholic news agency which claimed that the introduction of divorce would pave the way for radical Islamism to enter the country. The paper had interviewed Mr Cini in 2009 when he claimed discrimination by social services.