AD calls for inquiry into Gaddafi-Malta dealings

Alternattiva Demokratika, the Green Party yesterday called for an independent board to be set up to investigate allegations of what it claimed were “suspicious Malta-Gaddafi dealings”.

Who are the airport officials working as Libyan spies mentioned in the CIA cables?

AD chairman Michael Briguglio it was inexplicable that serious allegations from a variety of sources were being swept under the carpet by both parties. It was also “significant”, he added, that none of the allegations had led to any libel charges being filed.

Over the past few months, both major political parties have taken it in turns to take pot shots at each other over the extent of their involvement with Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

In an article in It-Torċa, former Prime Minister Alfred Sant alleged that the Gaddafi regime had bankrolled the pro-EU membership campaign. Counter­wise, Nationalist secretary general Paul Borg Olivier has accused the Labour Party of having accepted “blood money” from Gaddafi’s Libya.

Declassified CIA cables have also implicated both parties, with one cable describing Libyan secret service agent Mustafa Hasuni as “a conduit to the Malta Labour Union leaders and influential members of the Maltese Nationalist Party”.

The cables also allege that a number of Maltese individuals working at Luqa airport in the late 1980s were in the pay of the Libyan secret service. It is not known who the individuals, identified only as “Sergeant Mario”, “Mr Johnny” and “Mr M”, are, or if they indeed exist.

AD foreign affairs spokesman Arnold Cassola said it was the people’s right to know if any public officials were implicated in underhand dealings with the regime.

He referred to the €87 million in Gaddafi family assets which the Maltese government had frozen in the wake of the Libyan revolution. “Are there any Maltese partners with a direct link to these assets?” he asked.

“If Malta wants to play a distinguished role in Libya’s reconstruction, it has to ensure it is represented by dignified people,” Dr Cassola said.

Persons who had a direct business involvement with the Gaddafi family could not be allowed to represent Malta in international fora or be given positions of trust, he continued.

“Who are the airport officials working as Libyan spies mentioned in the CIA cables? For all we know, they are now in positions of power,” said Dr Cassola.

Dr Briguglio followed on from his colleague’s statements. AD, he said, had consistently called for Malta’s foreign policy to be an ethical one built on principles of democracy, environmental and social justice and respect for human rights.

He commended the government on the humanitarian aid it was offering Libya’s National Transitional Council but said that it should now redouble calls for the ousting of other brutal regimes.

Challenged as to the political mileage AD hoped to get out of this call for a board of enquiry, Dr Cassola appeared bemused.

AD had always been consistent in its position against the Gaddafi regime, he said. “Two-and-a-half years ago, when top officials from both parties were falling over themselves to congratulate [Italian Prime Minister] Berlusconi for having forced migrants at sea to return to Gaddafi-era Libya, AD had expressly condemned the decision.”

The decision attracted criticism from several international bodies who said it was in direct violation of international law.