Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo has strongly denied claims in an Italian media report linking him to a Gozo property allegedly used by notorious Sicilian mafia boss Salvatore "Totò" Riina.
Italian newspaper La Stampa reported on Saturday that Riina, one of Sicily's most feared mafia leaders, had hidden from Italian authorities in a sea-view villa in Qala that it claimed was owned by Refalo. The report also alleged that Riina was a frequent visitor to Gozo.
But Refalo rejected the claims outright, insisting he never owned the property in question.
Speaking to Times of Malta, the minister said the report was "factually incorrect" and described any attempt to associate him with the late mafia boss as "absolute hogwash and cheap sensationalism".
"I am not the owner of the property and never was," Refalo said.
He explained that he had only leased the property in June 2002, nearly a decade after Riina's arrest in 1993. At the time, he said, the property owner was represented by a lawyer acting on her behalf.
Refalo stressed that he had no knowledge of any alleged historical connection between the property and Riina.
"Any attempt at associating me with Totò Riina, who I have now learnt had been arrested nine years before I leased that property, is absolute hogwash and cheap sensationalism," he said.
Riina, widely known as il capo dei capi - the boss of bosses - was regarded as one of the most ruthless figures in the history of the Sicilian mafia. As head of the Corleonesi faction in the 1980s and early 1990s, he oversaw a brutal campaign against the Italian state and is believed to have ordered the killings of up to 200 people.
Among the most high-profile victims were anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, whose murders shocked Italy and the wider world.
Although Riina was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment during the 1986 maxi-trial in Palermo, he remained a fugitive before being captured in 1993. His arrest was followed by a wave of bomb attacks in Sicily, including attacks on churches and art galleries. He died in November 2017.
In a separate statement, the Labour Party said that during a time when the Nationalist Party was in government, a Mafia boss hid in Gozo and was able to enter and leave our country without difficulty.
The stories reported in the Italian media raise many questions for the representatives of past Nationalist governments who are close to Alex Borg. At that time, despite reports published in the Italian media, the Nationalist Government had chosen not to investigate reports that the Italian mafia using properties in Gozo, and was entering and leaving our country.
These are some of the many questions that the people expect the Nationalist Party to come up with an answer for, the PL said.