Labour MP Evarist Bartolo and candidates Manuel Mallia and David Farrugia Sacco will be filing a complaint to the police against Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt, for his claim of a frame up by the Labour Party this afternoon.

They will be requesting the police to proceed with urgency “as we have been slandered,” they told a news conference this afternoon.

Their press conference was held shortly after Dr Gatt announced he had compiled a technical report which he intended to file with the police.

The report is in connection with the publication of an email leaked this week as part of the unfolding oil scandal story, which he said, was likely part of a frame up in his respect by the Labour Party.

The minister also said he had come across information that showed that at least three Labour candidates were somehow connected with this matter. He mentioned Mr Bartolo, Dr Mallia and Dr Farrugia Sacco.

Dr Farrugia Sacco that that the only interpretation that could be given to the minister’s statement was that they were behind the frame up.

Mr Bartolo, likened Dr Gatt to Inspector Jacques Clouseau of Pink Panther fame for playing detective.

He referred to the minister’s claim that The Times had picked up the email from his Facebook page. Did the minister not realise that he was one of thousands of people who had been tagged in that email, he asked

Mr Bartolo said that Minister Gatt was desperate and had his back to the wall so he was trying to deviate the attention from him and pass his blame on to others.

“We are treating the biggest scandal in our political history which it is clear that the minister wants to hide.”

He asked if people who had benefitted from this scandal were also found in the list JS, which, he said, was a compilation of the names of people who financed the PN from the money they made out of commissions.

He asked why, when there was the fuel procurement advisory committee, had the chairman, who wanted to do things the right way, been dismissed.

Mr Bartolo asked the Prime Minister if, even before the 2008 election, he had been informed that there was rampant corruption in oil procurement, if there were those who wanted to give him documents and if he had gone to the police with any information.

He asked if, in the investigations being carried out now, had there been anyone who was saying that the signature on the documents they were shown was not their own.

Dr Mallia said that Dr Gatt was panicking and he did not expect a minister with so much experience to speak in the way he did without any basis. The minister, he said, also made a number of suppositions in his attempt to research from where the e-mails originated.

Referring to the fact that he was the Farrugias lawyer, Dr Mallia said “so what”.

The first time he saw the emails, he said, was on MaltaToday.

But Dr Gatt was trying to spin a strategy to alienate the people and create a situation to deviate attention.

He said that he had never seen Mr Farrugia’s computer and was never ever part of the audit investigation team.

It was true that he had represented the Farrugias for a meeting in Geneva but this a meeting of a commercial and contractual nature and not one to discuss commissions or bribes.

Dr Farrugia Sacco also said that the first time he saw the emails was on MaltaToday.

He said that he entered politics to give a contribution and found myself being attacked for something he was absolutely not involved in.

It was true that he had represented the Farrugia brothers in a case related to siphoning of funds but this had nothing to do with the matter.

 

 

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