The Nationalist Party is calling for a public inquiry on the case of the cargo vessel which fled Malta evading two arrest warrants issued on Tuesday.

The Sunday Times of Malta reported today that the Madra, a 100-metre cargo ship, was slapped with two arrest warrants on August 18 and 19 on behalf of Cassar Fuels and Italian firm Shipoll, which together claim to be owed some €220,000 by the shipping company that owns it.

On Tuesday, the captain switched off the vessel’s tracking system, lifted the anchor and made away, before the Armed Forces of Malta could intercept it.

The AFM dispatched a vessel but they failed to locate it on the radar before the ship crossed the border and therefore could not chase it outside Maltese waters, an army source told The Sunday Times of Malta.

To make matters worse, the vessel was already some nine miles off Malta in the stretch of sea outside Birzebbuga, known as Bunker Area 3. This is just three miles short of the border with international waters.

This was the second such incident this year. On April 30, the MT Atlantik was issued an arrest warrant following a request by a Liberian-registered company, which claimed it was owed €900,000 by the owners of the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel.

In a statement this morning, PN spokesmen Jason Azzopardi and Toni Bezzina said the inquiry should be held according to law with all witnesses giving evidence under oath. The evidence as well as the conclusions of the inquiry, they said, should be made public.

Dr Azzopardi and Mr Bezzina noted that the inquiry ordered in the case of the MT Atlantik was not public and it absolved all Maltese authorities of any blame.

They said the Nationalist Party was concerned seeing the country’s judicial system fall into such ridicule by an incompetent government.

Such incidents, they said, were the result of the government’s decision to put aside people who were competent including in the Armed Forces and Transport Malta to be replaced by others.