The Board of Inquiry into the shooting incident involving the driver of Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia questioned the statements made to the board by the minister, while absolving him of any involvement in the cover-up.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said late yesterday he had asked Dr Mallia to resign, but there has since been no reaction from the minister.
However, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, in a telling comment on Facebook quoted Victor Hugo who said: 'Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.'
The controversy arose after when the minister's driver, Paul Sheehan, on November 19 chased and fired at a car driven by Steve Smith after it smashed a side mirror on the minister's Mercedes. The ministry later that evening issued a statement where it falsely said warning shots had been fired into the air.
Dr Mallia insisted with the board that the version of the incident that his driver had fired warnings shots – came to him from the driver and Acting Commissioner Ray Zammit.
“However,” the board points out, “even if Dr Mallia believed this version,certainly he had to abandon this version, because he himself stated in the last hearing [of the board of inquiry] that he knew that PC Sheehan did not fire into the air but had fired in the direction of [Steven] Smith’s car and effectively hit it.”
The minister told the board he “may” have been made aware of this fact at police headquarters, where he attended a function, at the time of the incident, and “certainly” on the way back home that night because his other driver, Paul Vella – who had gone to the scene of the crime – had told him as much.
STATEMENT TO THE PRESS
The board of Inquiry noted in its report that while the minister claimed he had not seen the draft of the press release issued on the night of the shooting but this was contradicted by the Acting Police Commissioner, Ray Zammit who insisted that he had shown him the draft before it was released.
The board said that, at the very least, the minister was aware of the content of the statement since, as testified by the government head of communications Kurt Farrugia, during a conversation he had with the Acting Commissioner, he could hear Dr Mallia in the background say “release the statement, release the statement, release the statement”, followed by “as it is”.
“Even if Dr Mallia is to be believed that he never saw the statement before it was published, he certainly cannot say that he was not aware of its content, especially in respect to the claim that PC Sheehan had fired into the air,” the board said.
While there was no evidence to prove that he acted to cover up PC Sheehan’s actions, Dr Mallia still carried responsibility for the fact that the official statement issued by the ministry was incorrect.
He should have made sure that the mistake was not made in the first place; however, once it was done, he should have ensured that it was corrected immediately.
Instead, when Mr Farrugia and the minister’s own communications coordinator, Ramona Attard, suggested that a correction should be issued, the minister said that first it should be established how the mistake happened and that the statement should be “issued once we have all the clear facts”.
See the report in full at http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141208/local/shooting-incident-inquiry-read-the-full-report.547481
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