Former PN MP Jason Azzopardi has filed a request for a magisterial inquiry into a new “racket” in Gozo which he alleges spans both the Gozo Ministry – headed by Clint Camilleri – and Transport Malta – where his wife works.
Sharing the details in a video on his Facebook page on Sunday, Azzopardi said that Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri and his wife Deborah Camilleri, who is Head of Transport in Gozo within Transport Malta, were embroiled in a “racket” involving favourable mooring spaces in the sister island’s Mgarr harbour.
Azzopardi also alleged that Deborah Camilleri had been embezzling and misappropriating public funds by continuing her private work as a lawyer while she was supposed to be working at Transport Malta.
The former PN MP said that he had filed requests with the inquiring magistrate last Tuesday.
Azzopardi told followers on Sunday that up until September of this year he was approached by persons from the Gozo Ministry and Transport Malta with “concrete” evidence on “a bribery scandal” regarding the securing of moorings in the Mgarr Harbour.
He said that he had filed a request for a magisterial inquiry to be opened into these allegations of bribery and “other crimes”. He explained that the request is 75 pages long and divided into 2 sections with the first part treating allegations of a bribery “racket”, that was ongoing for at least 2 years since 2022, and the second section dealing with a “prima facie” yet apparently “textbook” case of embezzlement involving Deborah Camilleri, the Minister for Gozo Clint Camilleri’s wife.
With the law requiring someone filing such a request to identify the persons appropriately involved in the crimes, Azzopardi went on to allege the involvement of Clint Camilleri, his wife, Marcelle Meilak from Transport Malta and Qala locals Anthony ‘Zbibu’ Caruana and his son whom, up until recently, used to work in the Gozo Ministry’s customer care.
He elaborated that the “This [the mooring bribery racket] is an open secret, if one goes to the Qala band club or piazza and want a moor even if you are not a full-time fisherman you need to pay hundreds, sometimes thousands.”
With regards to the second section, Azzopardi said that he presented testimonies of witnesses who claimed that Deborah Camilleri, despite working full-time as a public official as the head of transport in Gozo is also working full-time as a lawyer in Gozo.
Azzopardi said that he had presented court documents proving that there were at least 11 occasions where Camilleri was representing private clients in Gozo’s court during office hours at Transport Malta
Azzopardi explained that the main intention of the request was for the magistrate to identify and preserve evidence apart from asking the magistrate on duty to investigate allegations of false declarations, criminal conspiracy, bribery and money laundering and any complicity in bribery and false declarations.
He added that should viewers put “one plus one” when it comes to what has been going on in his regard in the last few days it would make sense. Azzopardi was recently charged with filming video footage inside the law courts.
Azzopardi said that currently, he is awaiting the magistrate to take up the inquiry and if it is to be opened, it will be in January at least, in his words “not anytime soon.”