PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said that the latest developments in the Gzira shooting case involving the driver of Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia is another confirmation that the minister's position is no longer tenable.

The driver is expected to be arraigned this evening. Last week, shots were fired at a car occupied by a Briton after the vehicle he was driving clipped the mirror of the minister's parked car in Gzira.

Dr Fenech Adami was speaking at a press conference held at the PN headquarters together with Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi.

He said that it is only thanks to the media that were present on site soon after the incident last week that the truth has come out. Otherwise, we would be still be made to believe the lie fabricated by the government when it issued a statement soon after the incident which was full of lies in an attempt to cover up the incident.

Dr Fenech Adami said that the minister was with the police commissioner at the time of the shooting.

Dr Azzopardi said that the police low loader was on the scene of the incident within minutes when it usually is not so fast to turn up. “In past scenarios similar to this one, the low loader takes ages to arrive at the scene and police officers at the scene of a crime have had to call up as much as six times so that a low loader is sent,” he said.

“The bullet riddled car should never have been moved from the scene of the incident, even if it was blocking traffic,” Dr Azzopardi said.

He also pointed out that it was so much of a cover-up that the clothes of the driver were not examined for traces of gun residue while the minister's car was not taken to the police garage to be examined by forensic experts either and was on our roads the next day which gave enough time for the car to be washed from any existing proof, referring to the residue. This, he said, is abnormal to say the least since normally, in such circumstances, such vehicles are taken to the police garage to be examined by forensic experts.

Dr Fenech Adami, who has a legal background, said that one expects that the minister’s driver is charged with attempted murder since normally, in circumstances such as these, where shots are fired towards someone else, the accused is charged with attempted murder.

He said that when a hunter entered Valletta to protest against the government and waved a fake firearm he was arrested and charged within 48 hours. “It has taken six days for the police to charge the minister’s driver; in fact he was released soon after the incident and his statement taken the next day, a case of two weights and two measures,” Dr Fenech Adami said.

Turning to the acting police commissioner, Dr Fenech Adami said that the commissioner has failed his first big test.