President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and her closest aides were aware of all the preparations related to the organisation of last October’s Paqpaqli event which ended in tragedy, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.
According to Justice Minister Owen Bonnici a magisterial inquiry on the case concluded that “the President was not involved in the event’s organisation and preparatory meetings in any way”.
The Sunday Times of Malta has seen numerous e-mails sent to members of the organising committee in which the President personally approved decisions taken during preparatory meetings. Also, while the preparatory meetings used to be held inside San Anton Palace, the President’s official residence, minutes of the meetings were taken by George Azzopardi, the President’s events coordinator, and passed on for the attention of the President.
Mr Azzopardi used to inform the President on all the preparations and report back to the organising committee.
In one of the meeting’s minutes, Mr Azzopardi wrote: “H.E. The President agreed to buy the water barriers instead of leasing. We have to find sponsors to finance the cost.”
Sources close to the organising committee told this newspaper that while the President was not to blame for the tragedy, it was not fair that all the blame has been put on them and the British driver.
If the inquiry really concluded that the President was not aware of anything, it’s simply incredible
“While we are still in the dark over the conclusions of the inquiry it is not correct to say that the President and her officers were not connected to this activity,” a committee member said.
“The President used to be aware of every minute and single detail so much so she even used to approve which adverts to use for the activity,” another committee member said.
“If the inquiry really concluded that the President was not aware of anything, it’s simply incredible,” he said.
The Office of the President did not reply to various questions sent by this newspaper on the conclusion of the inquiry and the involvement of the President in the event’s preparatory meetings.
So far, the inquiry has been held under wraps, with the only information given being a two-page document with excerpts from the 1,700-page report prepared by the Justice Ministry.
A formal request by this newspaper to the Attorney General to gain access to the inquiry conducted by Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera was turned down.
Attorney General Peter Grech said it was “not appropriate” to give this newspaper access to the inquiry.
According to the summary of the inquiry’s conclusions, British driver Paul Bailey was identified as the main person to blame for the incident which injured 23 spectators, while 11 members of the organising committee were also to blame and charges are to be brought against them.
Contacted by this newspaper, a spokesman for the multimillionaire driver said Mr Bailey would not like to give any comments but would respond in court, if and when charged.
According to the Justice Minister, the inquiry concluded Mr Bailey “lacked the expertise of trained professional drivers in handling supercars.”