NGO Repubblika has called on the police to charge a number of former Pilatus Bank officials with money laundering, saying that there is enough evidence for such a case to stand up in court.
Repubblika President Robert Aquilina said that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa, Deputy Commissioner Alexandra Mamo and Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg had been sitting on evidence which showed the alleged money laundering for months, adding that the police commissioner should stop wasting time and charge the people in question.
Aquilina was speaking outside the Police headquarters in Floriana on Wednesday morning.
He named Mehmet Tasli, who was the bank’s Operations Supervisor, Rivera Luis Felipe, a director and board secretary, Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, and Ghambari Hamidreza, another director, as the bank officials who should be charged immediately.
So far only one of its senior officials – Claude-Ann Sant Fournier – has been charged in court in relation to an inquiry into Pilatus Bank, which has since closed down.
“It’s a real pity that even when he has an inquiry of over half a million pages in his hands, we need to come here and prompt Commissioner Gafa into doing something,” Aquilina said.
He said that Gafa, Mamo, and Buttigieg’s dragging of feet is an act of cruelty against the Maltese people who are paying the price for these delays.
Aquilina also reminded the Commissioner about a report that they had filed some weeks ago asking for an investigation into former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat over a story which showed that he had been paid thousands from a company in Switzerland which had in turn received millions from the “corrupt agreement which saw three hospitals stolen from the Maltese people.”
He also said that they are still waiting for the police to take steps against former Ministers Chris Cardona, Edward Scicluna, and Konrad Mizzi over a magisterial inquiry into the hospitals deal.
Repubblika warned that if the police are found lacking, then they will intervene “with any means at their disposal.”