The NGO Repubblika has sent a letter to all of Malta’s MPs, appealing to them to vote in favour of an anti-mafia Bill proposed by the Nationalist Party, which is up for discussion in Parliament on Thursday.
You have before you a Bill which seeks to define and criminalise a mafia organisation, and which is in line with the recommendations of the public inquiry into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s death, the NGO told MPs.
The NGO added that they are “perplexed” at how Prime Minister Robert Abela – who, they reminded, had pledged to implement the inquiry’s recommendations – said that he does not agree with the Bill because it would recognise Malta as a “mafia state.”
“This is an absurd argument which defeats the scope of every penal law. Recognising Malta as a mafia state does not depend on whether we have a law to fight it or not,” Repubblika wrote.
“A law which punishes an act does not create that act,” the group added in its letter. On the contrary, it said, until there is no law to stop it, the mafia will continue to spread.
Repubblika said that the Prime Minister would be doing wrong to deny the infiltration of the mafia in Malta, and added that even if he does want to do this there is no need to object that if and when independent institutions establish that the mafia is in Malta they would have the legal tools to fight and destroy it.
“The truth is that the mafia exists and is among us. We can see its fingers in the evidence that the prosecution brought against those charged with killing Daphne Caruana Galizia,” Repubblika said.
The Prime Minister trying to imply that the mafia does not exist amounts to “omerta, and complicity with the mafia’s efforts to remain hidden,” the NGO said.
“A country which has laws against the mafia is not a mafia state. A mafia state does not happen because there is the mafia; it becomes a mafia state if it is ruled by the mafia, included by the state doing nothing to fight,” Repubblika said.
Repubblika said that this week the Prime Minister had taken a stand in favour of “a person suspected of committing serious crimes” and against a magistrate and the police doing their duty – a reference to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose house was searched by police earlier this week.
“We don’t think it’s a coincidence that the person who the Prime Minister stuck up for is the same predecessor who the inquiry into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s death found responsible for the impunity which led to the murder,” the NGO said.
Whatever you do with your vote on this Bill, the NGO told MPs, you cannot erase the fact that there are some who want the mafia to control the Maltese state.
“Your choice is between fighting the mafia, or helping it”, Repubblika said.
The letter was signed by Repubblika president Robert Aquilina.