Last Tuesday, the Nationalist Opposition walked out of Parliament following the Speaker’s ruling on a breach of privilege complaint instituted against me by the Prime Minister.

Our walkout was neither frivolous, nor a political stunt. It was an extraordinary measure intended to react to an extraordinary decision to silence the Opposition.

Allow me to lay out the facts that led to my statement in Parliament and the resultant breach of privilege claim.

Fact 1: Former Police Commissioner John Rizzo testified in court last week that he had planned to press charges against former European Commissioner John Dalli following the Olaf investigation which led to his resignation. Rizzo stated that the Attorney General had supported his decision to press charges. Tellingly, he added, under oath, that his decision was in no way influenced by the then PN administration.

Fact 2: The former Police Commissioner could not press charges because Dalli was not in Malta. He was abroad, claiming he was too sick to travel to Malta.

Fact 3: On the same day, Times of Malta reported that Dalli was back in Malta and that a known Labour stalwart, Peter Paul Zammit, was appointed as the new Police Commissioner. Meanwhile, all investigating officers in the Dalli case were removed from the case.

Fact 4: The politically appoin­ted Police Commissioner, Zammit, dropped the case against Dalli. He was first reported claiming that the Attorney General agreed with him but later admitted that the decision was solely his.

Fact 5: Within a couple of days, the Prime Minister summoned Dalli and appointed him consultant on health. The Prime Minister has since stuck to his decision even after serious revelations that Dalli had breached the Code of Conduct as an EU Commissioner.

These facts leave very little room for any person with a modicum of intelligence to draw the obvious conclusion that here is a case of political interference by the Government in the course of justice.

It is simply inconceivable how a decision to press charges, with the support of both the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General, was dropped as a result of the appointment of a new Police Commissioner who is manifestly a political appointee.

The Police Commissioner was appointed by the Government, and the responsibility for the Government falls squarely on the Prime Minister.

We will not allow the Government to gag the Opposition and we will continue to speak out on the Dalli scandal

The Prime Minister should credit the Opposition and the public at large with enough intelligence to draw the obvious political conclusion. And it is precisely this political judgment that I stated in Parliament last week.

Am I not within my rights to question the coincidences that emerge from these facts?

Am I not within my rights to draw the necessary political conclusion based on these facts?

Am I not within my rights to speak up on this case?

Not only am I within my rights. But it is also within my duty as a Leader of the Opposition.

Yet, on the request of the Prime Minister, the Speaker ruled that I was, prima facie, in breach of privilege. This effectively means that I am being prevented from stating in Parliament what I have repeatedly stated outside.

Now remember, MPs are granted special protection in Parliament, the house of democracy, precisely to be able to come to their political conclusions without fear or intimidation.

Stopping me from voicing the Opposition’s concerns in Parliament is therefore a clear affront to freedom of expression and to democracy itself.

This is why the Opposition walked out of Parliament following the Speaker’s ruling last Tuesday. This is why we have contested the ruling, as we are entitled to do, in Parliament, and will contest it, if necessary, in court both in Malta and in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

We will not allow the Government to gag the Opposition and we will continue to speak out on the Dalli scandal.

Simon Busuttil is Leader of the Opposition.

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