This column is triggered by a comment of an acquaintance who, when we bumped into each other last week, told me: “U ajma, what’s the fuss about this Maria Efimova? It’s not like we were going to butcher her if she came back to Malta, let’s move on.”
I never met Maria Efimova. I only know what she looks like from her Twitter profile picture, where she’s smiling with a glint of boldness in her eyes.
I got in touch with her after she voluntarily turned herself in to the Greek police back in March. After her release, I sent her a message on Twitter to tell her how inspiring her determination was. She replied promptly, concerned: “How are you, is it safe for you in Malta?”
Here was a woman whose life was under threat, who had just come out of jail, who indeed would be butchered if she had to returned here, and yet she had the presence of mind to think of others, without the slightest hint of self-pity. My admiration increased tenfold.
But this is not the Maria Efimova that is portrayed to the people out there. Maria Efimova, a Russian citizen married to a Greek, with two young children, is the enemy of the State – or so we’re made to believe.
Why? It all started in January 2015 when she was recruited as an executive assistant to the owner of Pilatus Bank, Ali Sadr. She stayed there for three months during which she was never paid.
In March, she was handed a notice of termination – without any salary cheque. “We’ll post your cheque,” they told her. But the postman never came.
As you and I would have done, because three months’ salary is no joke, she filed a complaint with the Labour Office, who investigated the matter and asked the bank to pay up.
But Pilatus still didn’t pay up and eventually the Labour Office had to refer the matter to the police. The police charged Pilatus Bank for failing to pay Efimova.
And pronto, Pilatus retaliated. They filed a police report against Efimova, accusing her of defrauding the bank of €2,000 and using that money to pay for flights for her husband and children to join her on a work trip abroad.
A rather silly charge, you would think. Why would she take the money and then use it for all to see on a work trip? In fact, Efimova insisted that she took her husband and children along with her on the suggestion and with the approval of Ali Sadr, because she could not travel freely with a Russian passport unless accompanied by her husband, an EU citizen, and her two children who were too young to be left alone.
The police, suddenly, became really, but really, interested in the case. They immediately arrested Efimova and took her in for interrogation. They kept her overnight in a cell, charged her with fraud and sequestered her Russian passport. When her mother died, the police refused to release her passport to allow her to fly home to bury her.
At Eastertime of 2016, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia revealed the Maltese link with the Panama Papers scandal. Star Cabinet minister Konrad Mizzi and chief of staff Keith Schembri, the Prime Minister’s most trusted person, both had secret companies in Panama. There were other secret companies with a link to Malta: one belonged to a certain mysterious ‘Egrant’; the other was Brian Tonna’s, the Nexia BT auditor who had his own desk in the Prime Minister’s office, and the other belonged to the Chinese guy who negotiated the sale of Enemalta with Mizzi.
This was also the time when we started getting to know things about Pilatus Bank, namely that family members of the corrupt Azerbaijani President had bank accounts there, as did the Prime Minister’s chief of staff – who is suspected of fast-tracking Ali Sadr’s bank licence application – as did Tonna. Coincidence?
At that point Efimova had a choice. She could either forget all that she witnessed while working at Pilatus Bank, or she could speak up.
She spoke up. And reported what she saw first-hand at the bank. She claimed she saw papers at the bank which showed that Egrant belonged to the Prime Minister’s wife and was in the process of receiving a transfer of some €1 million in its bank account in Dubai.
Our country is no longer safe for those who speak out against the wrongdoings of the government
Both the Prime Minister and Ms Muscat rejected the allegations – but they would, wouldn’t they? Seeing this, Efimova had another choice. Would she retreat and spare herself a lot of trouble, or keep on fighting? She volunteered herself for testimony before the inquiring magistrate Aaron Bugeja.
At that point, her identity was revealed, or shall we say, ‘leaked’. The Prime Minister forgot all about his enthusiasm for whistle-blower protection and his office unleashed an aggressive, vicious campaign on Efimova to discredit and vilify her. Oh, and meanwhile, no investigations were carried out on Ali Sadr, and Pilatus Bank was allowed to operate come non fosse.
The general election was called early and Labour was re-elected to government. Soon after, Efimova’s father and widower in Russia was getting knocks on the door by “dodgy people” trying to intimidate him.
She had by then obtained her passport again, and fearing for her safety and that of her family, she decided to leave Malta that summer.
On October 16, Daphne Caruana Galizia, the journalist Efimova had spoken to, was assassinated. A fortnight later, on October 30, Malta issued a European arrest against Efimova for failing to turn up to court hearings (about that fraud case). A few days later Cyprus also issued one.
Speaking to Euronews, Efimova said: “In judicial investigations for political figures in Malta, there were two witnesses. One witness unfortunately was murdered last October and the other is me. That is why I do not think Mr Bonnici [Malta’s Minister of Justice] is right when he says that Malta is a safe place for me.”
For a while, in shock at Daphne’s assassination, she kept a low profile. But hiding was not typical of her – she had done nothing wrong. She turned herself in to the Greek police in March.
It was then that a group of MEPs, the European Parliament delegation to Malta on the rule of law, wrote to the Greek authorities calling on them to protect Efimova and ensure she was not returned to Malta. They felt that until the people who commissioned Caruana Galizia’s assassination were brought to justice, she was not safe.
By April, the courts in Athens had ruled that Efimova would not be extradited to Malta because of concerns for her safety. The decision was appealed by prosecutors.
Meanwhile we got to know that the Prime Minister and Keith Schembri had attended the lavish wedding of Ali Sadr in 2015. Then, Ali Sadr himself was arrested in the US and is now facing 125 years in jail for money laundering – proving Efimova right on several counts.
Last Thursday Maria Efimova tweeted: “Waiting for the Greek Supreme Court decision. My lawyer advised me not to appear in the court, so to avoid being arrested if the decision would be negative. However, I’m not going to hide, I will appear in the court and let it be as it should be.”
This woman deserved a standing ovation.
Later that day, the Athens court refused the appeal by the Greek prosecutor and confirmed that Efimova should not be extradited to Malta, because it was unsafe for her. Effectively this decision means that the justice system in our country has gone haywire and it is no longer safe for those who speak out against the wrongdoings of the government of Joseph Muscat.
That is what this ‘fuss’ is all about. Ajma indeed.
krischetcuti@gmail.com
Twitter: @krischetcuti