On 11 January 1993 police commissioner Lawrence Pullicino faced a trial by jury for the murder of Nardu Debono. Debono was arrested on 29 July 1980, viciously beaten, punched, slammed to the ground and repeatedly kicked by police officers. The Police Commissioner himself grabbed Debono by the neck and kicked him. Debono died in his cell from injuries he sustained.
At 11pm that night a police statement claimed Debono escaped from the police depot. PC710 Mangion insisted he saw Debono alive in Qormi. But PC710 had loaded Debono’s corpse into the booth of the police commissioner’s Simca. The Commissioner ordered his officers to make false declarations about Debono’s “escape”. The following day, Debono’s multilated body was found in Wied ic-Cawsli, Qormi.
Dennis Lyons, a British citizen who was at the depot when Debono was murdered, wrote to Justice Minister Joe Brincat informing him that Debono had been murdered. Leader of the Opposition Eddie Fenech Adami asked the Speaker to convene parliament urgently to present a motion to establish a joint committee to investigate the case. Speaker Kalcidon Agius saw no urgency and turned down the request. Labour’s government ignored all pleas for action.
It would take seven long years and a change in government before Commissioner Pullicino was arrested and accused of Debono’s murder. It took another seven before Pullicino was sentenced to 15 years’ jail for complicity in the murder. He served just 7 years. On his release Joseph Muscat’s commissioner Lawrence Cutajar welcomed the convicted murderer back to the fold. Pullicino was invited and attended Cutajar’s Christmas party at police headquarters.
Labour’s Justice Minister had been informed that Debono was murdered. Faced with the stark choice between doing the right thing and protecting their own, Labour chose the latter. They concealed the brutal murder but also condoned its attempted cover-up.
On 5 December 1986, the PN Gudja club was sprayed with machine gun fire. A young Raymond Caruana bled to death.
The following week, on a Saturday night, Republic Day, Labour’s police charged a completely innocent man with the murder. In a cruelly orchestrated frame-up, the murder weapon was planted in the man’s farm by the police. The Director of Information Paul Mifsud notified all journalists that at 9pm, Pietru Pawl Busuttil would be arraigned. Two vans with armed soldiers were deployed to court. Busuttil didn’t turn up. The man was so traumatized he collapsed as police attempted to drag him to court. Despite his fragile state Busuttil was hauled to court at 11:15pm where he again collapsed and was taken straight to hospital under guard by the notorious SMU (special mobile unit).
Psychiatrist Abram Galea testified that Busuttil was fine and should face court proceedings. But when Busuttil was due back in court on 18 December 1986 he collapsed again.
Faced with national outrage against what was evidently a frame-up, the murder charges were dropped and Busuttil was prosecuted for possession of the firearm and explosives police had planted in his farm. Busuttil was granted bail only after spending one month in custody. It took seven months before Busuttil was found innocent of all charges. In his judgement Magistrate David Scicluna ordered criminal proceedings against Inspector Joseph Pico. Pico was eventually found guilty in May 1990 of giving false testimony and condemned to 18 months’ imprisonment and a general interdiction. Pico wasn’t acting alone.
Labour’s government had overseen another brutal murder and the orchestration of an evil scheme to conceal the crime, falsely accusing an innocent man of the murder for political advantage.
When Labour was re-elected in 1996, Prime Minister Alfred Sant asked his permanent secretary for a report drawn up by Judge Muscat Azzopardi about Pietru Pawl Busuttil’s frame-up. After the report was passed on to Alfred Sant’s secretary, the report vanished. OPM Permanent Secretary Joe R Grima testified that the frame-up report had been ‘lost’.
But the Permanent Secretary discovered that there were two other copies. One was with the Justice Minister and the other in the Court strong room. But those two copies had vanished too. Justice Minister Charles Mangion claimed he knew nothing about it. When Alfred Sant was asked to set up an inquiry about the ‘disappearance’ of that crucial document, Sant refused on the pretext that it was not the first time such “bureaucratic” reports went missing.
Labour returned to power to finish off what it started 10 years earlier - concealing criminal efforts to blame its political opponents for the murder of a young man.
Two decades later, Labour returned to power once more. And here we are again. This time, only worse. After years of relentless taunting, harassment, intimidation and dehumanisation of Labour’s arch critic, Daphne Caruana Galizia was liquidated. The middleman was being paid for a phantom job arranged by the Prime minister’s office. The PM’s chief of staff communicated regularly with the man accused of masterminding the assassination even passing him a written note instructing him to pin the blame on Chris Cardona. The police commissioner was passing inside information to the middle man. The Deputy commissioner watched Champions League matches with the alleged mastermind while leading the investigation. The PM invited the accused to his private birthday party, travelled with him to Hasheminedjad’s wedding and accepted his lavish gifts.
Labour desperately concealed the truth. It repeatedly cleared the memorial. Castille deviously leaked false stories that the assassination was linked to fuel smuggling. Labour refused to set up a public inquiry, eventually forced on it by an enraged Council of Europe. Joseph Muscat discredited the inquiry calling it “an exercise in curiosity”. His closest allies actively obstructed it. PM Abela harassed the board, threatening to cut the inquiry short. That inquiry concluded that Labour’s government bears responsibility for her murder. Labour now obstinately ignores its recommendations.
Labour governments have overseen three gruesome murders. In all three, Labour elements expended all efforts to exculpate the true culprits, even at the cost of the innocent.