Activists gathered outside the Police Headquarters in Floriana to call for Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar’s resignation amid the revelation that authorities from the USA have arrested chairman of Pilatus Bank, Iranian national Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad.
Sadr is accused of circumventing US sanctions against Iran by facilitating the transfer of $115 million to Iran from Venezuela via the US banking system. It is being alleged that financial institutions in Switzerland, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates were used for the transfer.
He was also Chairman of Pilatus Bank, Ta Xbiex, which was at the centre of a major scandal leading Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to call a snap election. The MFSA supervisory council has since removed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad from any position he holds at Pilatus Bank, but refrained from revoking the banking license of the company.
One activist speaking at the event also called on Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to “clean up the mess [he] created with [chief of staff] Keith Schembri and [Tourism Minister] Konrad Mizzi”.
Schembri and Mizzi were found to have secret New Zealand trusts sheltering Panama companies in the previous legislature. Both men deny carrying out illegal activities through their offshore structures while. Magisterial inquiries are underway to investigate whether anything illicit had been carried out, while the police were heavily criticised for failing to, of their own volition, investigate the affairs.
Activists also slammed the Prime Minister for “destroying [Malta’s]” institutions and slammed the commissioner for being a government “puppet”.
People who attended the protest held up placards and posters, some read “journalism is not a crime, money laundering is” while others called for justice to be done.
The infamous banner that was waved when slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally murdered made an appearance during the protest calling for the commissioner’s resignation.
Caruana Galizia had alleged that the Prime Minister’s wife is the UBO of Egrant Inc, a company registered in the financially secretive jurisdiction of Panama, and received $1 million through an account at Pilatus Bank from a daughter of the Azerbaijani dictator, Leyla Aliyeva.
All involved vociferously deny the claims, however the police commissioner was heavily criticised for failing to investigate or take action on several Panama-related allegations.
Politicians such as former PN leader Simon Busuttil, PN MPs Jason Azzopardi and Beppe Fenech Adami could be seen in the crowd.
Photos by Baskal Mallia