Alleanza Bidla has said that government's statement, that no information about any official contact attempts were made by Libyan officials when it comes to the medical visas, is a "denial of the truth".
In reaction to the press conference, where Alleanza Bidla party leader Ivan Grech Mintoff spoke of the medical visas scandal, government had sent a reply and said: "Malta has a good relationship with Libya and there are continuous diplomatic contacts. Contrary to what is being alleged by Mr Grech Mintoff, there is no information about any official contact attempts." Mr Grech Mintoff had said that ministers had asked to check on the money being paid for visas and for humanitarian assistance
Alleanza Bidla's statement read that "If, as it (government) states, the Maltese government holds very good relationships with the Libyan authorities then it should, with immediate effect, accept all three Libyan government's formal and diplomatic requests to appoint Mr. Hussein Musrati as their combined & sole representative in Malta: their chosen Charge d'affaires. Instead, the Maltese government has gone against their written wishes and insists instead in recognising someone who has no authority from anyone whatsoever, namely Mr Al-Habib Al-Amin. He is someone, who is actually listed on the Maltese ministry of foreign affairs as being the Charge d'affaires of Libya but that all three governments of Libya have rejected in writing as representing them even up to the 28 of August".
" Despite any negation from the OPM, they did this through the 'normal diplomatic channels' as per attached documents from Libyan vice President Al Qatrani and another from Libyan Prime Minister Al -Thinni himself directly to our Prime Minister Dr. Muscat. The next day of having received written confirmation of the above, on the 29 August and thereafter too, Mr. Al-Amin actually went on Malta's government friendly media (only) to actually blacken the "whistleblower" of the Libyan visa Scandal with lies. Was this done by total coincidence or by plan? With our government's blessing or without?"
"However the Office of the Prime Minister steps over the line of credibility when it states that there was no "official correspondence between the governments as per the usual channels" with regards to above and also with regards to the ministers wanting to check on the money being paid for visas & for humanitarian assistance . I am hereby also attaching correspondence to confirm our statements so far as being correct. This document again proves that what we have been saying is quite correct. One can easily confirm that this minister was never given a visa at the time and a simple question to him could no doubt confirm the whole story. More documents are of course available to substantiate our claims. Finally, it is most audacious for the government to 'warn' the opposition about the credibility of Mr. Ivan Grech Mintoff and thereby try to tarnish him", the party statement read.
"This statement was quite amusing when one considers that a member of the same OPM approached the same Mr. Grech Mintoff and offered him a job in the last two weeks as has already been reported!"
"The government would do much better to stop this 'misinformation exercise' to its own people who by now are able to judge better as to who is actually credible and who is not, and should by now be asking its own government to come out with the whole truth and not keep defending those who have done much harm to Malta and its reputation".