[attach id=235816 size="medium"]Toni Abela at the press conference yesterday. Photo: Jason Borg[/attach]
Labour’s deputy leader for party affairs Toni Abela defended himself against resignation calls yesterday as a secret recording emerged in which he talks about telling a Labourite policeman not to press charges on a case.
The audio clip surfaced on You Tube days after Dr Abela denied influencing police to delay action over a fight which, he insisted, was a separate incident from that mentioned in the recording.
Coincidentally, both incidents involved the Labour Party club in Attard, which seems to have been the centre of much internal conflict over the years.
Reacting to the recording uploaded yesterday morning, Dr Abela addressed a press conference where he insisted on taking every question and claimed he had done “nothing wrong”.
My conscience is clear and I have nothing to hide
“If there are any more recordings, please issue them now so I don’t have to hold a press conference to rebuff each one,” he began with a chuckle, pointing out that he had also called a press conference last week on allegations made in court regarding the other case involving the Attard club.
“My conscience is clear and I have nothing to hide... I do my job as a political mission – I don’t even get paid - and I will continue to carry out this mission,” he said, when asked whether he would resign.
Dr Abela admitted that his recollection of the recorded meeting was sketchy but remembered it happened around three years ago on a public holiday, possibly March 31. He had filled in the blanks after speaking to committee members who remembered the meeting, he said.
Dr Abela said the comments, which were “taken out of context”, revolved around a case where the club’s committee had changed the locks to chuck out the barman, who then took the matter to the police.
“This had nothing to do with Richard Vella,” said Dr Abela, referring to the person who was involved in the other case regarding a fight.
Dr Abela said he told the police not to take any action “yet” because this seemed to be a civil case which could be solved, rather than a criminal one in which charges should be pressed.
He stressed he was legally responsible for the 65 party clubs around the islands and it was his duty to take responsibility for the case and to tell the police not to escalate matters. If this was corruption, he said, all lawyers in Malta had probably corrupted a policeman at one point or another because all of them advised police not to take action when a case could be resolved civilly.
He also said the recorded audio was a conversation he had with committee members where he was deliberately emphatic to make them aware of the gravity of such incidents and the consequences involved. Dr Abela said he had ended up in this position because he made sure that heads rolled whenever he had suspicions of wrongdoing at party clubs.
Dr Abela said he immediately had the “courage” to subject himself to a press conference about this “minor internal issue” while Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt has yet to be publicly grilled over the “national” case involving Enemalta commissions.
Dr Abela then turned his guns on the Nationalist Party, slamming it for issuing the recording after three years as part of an electoral campaign fuelled by “character assassination”. He also pointed out the PN was clutching at straws and conspiring with people of suspicious character.
“We too have personal information about people and officials but we are being discreet,” he said.
But as he promised Labour would not engage in such dirty tactics, he quickly added that PN had its fair share of dodgy party clubs and alleged that in 2010 there was also criminal activity involving prostitution at one such club.
“The deputy leader of the PN had to enter the club with security because of the dangerous people involved. Were steps taken? What steps? Did they file a police report? And, if so, was the report followed?”
The PN confirmed that allegations of “wrongdoing” had surfaced but said they immediately gave access to the police to investigate.
“The club did not open before the police said it was OK to reopen the club. This is the opposite of what Dr Abela did, because no PN official went to the police station and ordered the police to ignore the case, as Dr Abela did,” said a PN spokesman.
Earlier, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said Dr Abela would be clarifying the matter, adding that the audio confuses two separate incidents. He pointed out that the Police Commissioner never called for Dr Abela about this case since 2010, so the case was not taken seriously.
Nationalist whip David Agius said he had informed the Police Commissioner about the recording on October 20 and also provided a statement about the matter.
Toni Abela’s comments made on the 35-second audio recording uploaded by You Tube user Kristian Buhagiar:
“We had to issue an apology to look good with the press. Today we are all eyes and I want you to appreciate just one thing. Why do you think I went to the police station and found someone there who is a Labourite to tell them, listen, I told them, for now don’t proceed? Because I already knew I would find this report in the newspapers and right now we are passing through a moment...”
Busuttil says Abela position ‘untenable’
PN deputy leader Simon Busuttil said the position of Dr Abela had become untenable following the broadcast of the recording, particularly because it exposed his “lies”.
“In two separate television debates with me, Dr Abela categorically denied that he put pressure on the police over this case. Now it transpired that this is not true and that Dr Abela lied,” Dr Busuttil said, adding that this was a big test for Dr Muscat.
“We have to see whether it is acceptable for Dr Muscat that his deputy leader goes to a police station and puts pressure on the police. I have already said that the PL is a morally bankrupt party and this continues to prove the case.”
Dr Busuttil said people would now judge whether Dr Muscat was treating Dr Abela in the same way he treated Anġlu Farrugia.