Jean Paul Sofia’s family furiously shouted at Prime Minister Robert Abela for shooting down calling a public inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia.
“Look at us!” “Clowns!” “Stop looking at your phones!” “You should be ashamed of yourselves!” “Hug your children Prime Minister, because we can’t hug Jean Paul.” These were just a few of the phrases that the family members of Sofia were screaming at the government benches.
A heart-wrenching video uploaded to social media by PN MP Eve Borg Bonello shows the commotion that took place which caused the Speaker of the House to suspend the session after the government voted against a public inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia.
In the video government MPs and the Prime Minister were all captured looking down, evidently uncomfortable with being shouted at and not being able to even glance at the family members on the balcony.
“I will continue walking but you will make me give up,” the Sofia's mother Isabelle Bonnici told the government benches, which was a statement backed by the banging of the opposition benches. “We are with you,” the PN replied.
In the video, Abela was caught looked down as Sofia father shouted "Look at me! I lost my son!"
The father of Sofia explained that they first approached the government but after the government closed the door, then they went to the opposition benches, clarifying that this was not a political dispute.
Unconvinced by the numerous calls for a public inquiry made by Sofia’s family, the opposition, NGOs and the almost 20,000 people who signed a petition, the government did not budge and instead, voted in favour of an amendment it tabled which removed any mention of a public inquiry but simply asked for a speedier magisterial inquiry. 40 MPs voted in favour of the government’s amendment to remove references to a public inquiry, while 32 voted against it.
Bonnici published a filmed statement on the Facebook page Ghal Jean Paul, where she pledged that, regardless of the result, she will not give up and will continue calling for a public inquiry into the death of her son.
“I am disappointed with those MPs who did not vote in favour of the public inquiry,” she said.