PN keeps up pressure in Toni Abela case

Nationalist Party deputy leader Simon Busuttil yesterday accused Joseph Muscat of using two weights and two measures and challenged him to ask Toni Abela for his resignation.

The PN says Dr Abela is heard in tape recordings trying to influence the police. Dr Abela denies the allegation and has resisted calls to resign.

Dr Muscat yesterday continued to defend his deputy for party affairs, saying he had explained his position well.

He declined to compare the case with the sacking of Anġlu Farrugia, who was forced to resign as PL deputy leader for parliamentary affairs in December after accusing a magistrate of political bias.

Addressing a press conference, Dr Busuttil said: “If Dr Muscat is to be taken seriously he should use the same yardstick he used with Anġlu Farrugia. So far, he is letting Toni Abela face the music alone while sitting on the fence.

“While he (Dr Muscat) asked Dr Farrugia to resign and sacked him, he did not bother to call Dr Abela on a recorded serious episode.”

Dr Busuttil added it was unacceptable that Dr Abela said he went to a police station, found a Labourite policeman and asked him not to proceed on a case.

Such action was not only “unethical and censorable” but made Dr Abela’s position as deputy leader untenable.

“We are not talking about something illegal here. We are talking about Labour’s number two trying to influence the police in their job.”

Dr Busuttil said this case further showed that Labour was presenting a nice wrapper on an already rotten product.

Asked about the controversy over the oil procurement scandal, Dr Busuttil said that there were no indications that Minister Austin Gatt was directly implicated. However, if the PN received any information to the contrary, it would immediately ask the police to investigate.