Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia yesterday implied that there is nothing suspect about the timing of the arraignment of six people, including John Dalli’s daughters, insisting that certain investigations take time to conclude.

The Malta Independent yesterday revealed that money laundering charges have been filed in court against Dalli’s daughters, Claire Gauci Borda and Louisa Dalli, and four other foreign nationals. The six have not yet been arraigned. The charges related to an investment scam.

The timing of the charges has been questioned because they come at a time when calls are being made for the resignation of Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar and Attorney General Peter Grech over Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder as well as inaction over high profile cases.

Sources say the police the police have been sitting on the charges for almost two years.

Asked about the timing of charges being filed in court against Dalli’s two daughters, Farrugia said: “Some investigations require deeper, intensive work while some are more superficial. It is important that investigations continue. I think one must consider all investigations. We must not rush with investigations, than it results that the proof is not all there, the person is acquitted, and then what happens?

“We had a case recently, a person was accused, the police and AG did not do their work. Charges were fired half-way down the road, investigation of what was found on this person never happened, time went by, and the person was acquitted.”

Farrugia was referring to a case where a man had been charged with supplying cocaine, but for various reasons the case took years to be concluded and the police never tested the cocaine to confirm the substance. Notifications for key witnesses were not sent out and therefore the accused was acquitted. 

 He was making the argument that investigations take as long as they take, and in the past people were arraigned in court when work by the prosecution was not fully completed. The implication here is that there is nothing suspect about the charges being filed, and that police took the time needed for investigations to be completed.

The persons in question are Louise Dalli and her sister Claire Gauci Borda (Dalli’s daughters), Elouise Marie Corbin Klein, who has at least seven aliases, including Mary Swan; and Charles Ray Jackson, Elizabeth Jean Jackson and Robert Mitchell McIvor.