Corruption is Everywhere > In China, But Who's Guilty? Tunisian Politics; Monsanto Fined in France; Malta's Mafia-Like Culture; Billions Looted from Tunisia

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Chinese billionaire Sun Dawu sentenced to 18 years for

‘attacking state organs’ amid land dispute

28 Jul, 2021 15:09

FILE PHOTO. Chinese pig farmer Sun Dawu in Hebei, outside Beijing. © AFP / NOEL CELIS

A Chinese court sentenced Sun Dawu to 18 years in jail on Wednesday after the billionaire was detained last November on charges that included “provoking trouble” and “gathering a crowd to attack state organs.”

The charges against the self-made billionaire were related to a land dispute between Sun’s agricultural firm, the Dawu Group, and a state-owned competitor.

Sun was tried in secret in a Gaobeidian court near Beijing. As well as the long stint in prison, he was fined 3.11 million yuan ($475,000).

He was detained by authorities back in November, along with 19 relatives and business associates, after Dawu employees tried to stop a government-owned enterprise from demolishing a company building in August 2020. According to a social media post by Sun, more than 20 people were injured in a clash with the police.

Sun’s legal team said prosecutors alleged that the Dawu Group acted deceptively toward its employees, interfering with the government’s administrative duties, and causing political instability. The billionaire has faced a slew of other charges,  including illegal mining and illegal occupation of farmland.

However, Sun reportedly claimed some responsibility for faults, including posting messages online and unspecified mistakes over the ‘land issue’. He said he wished to take the charges upon himself, even if severe, in exchange for the release of others. 

Sun – a self-proclaimed ‘outstanding Communist party member’ – said in response to the claims against his firm that the Dawu Group was “wholly socialist, everyone is on the road to common prosperity, and Dawu employees live very well,” according to his team.

The billionaire’s lawyers said that the secrecy of the trial “violated legal guidelines and did not protect the defendant's litigation rights.”

The land dispute is not the first time the pig-farmer billionaire has butted heads with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In the early 2000s he ran a website that included criticism of state-owned banks, which he accused of neglecting rural investment while funneling rural residents' savings toward urban projects.

In 2003, he was charged with ‘illegal fundraising’ after reportedly taking illegal deposits without approval from the People’s Bank of China. Instead, he solicited investments for his business from friends and neighbors.

After abandoning his appeals for the case, the sentence was suspended and Sun received probation.

More recently, in 2019, he criticized the government’s handling of the swine fever outbreak, publicly disputed the scale of the epidemic, saying it was far more severe than officials had said. He reported that about 15,000 pigs on his farms had died from the disease and posted photos of the dead animals online.

Tunisia’s biggest political parties under investigation over

foreign funding, judiciary announces

28 Jul, 2021 16:15

Police officers stand guard outside the parliament building in Tunis, Tunisia July 27, 2021 © REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

A Tunisian court has said it is investigating three of the country’s political parties, including Ennahda and Heart of Tunisia, over allegations they received foreign funds during the 2019 election campaign.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Tunisian judiciary told the Tunis Africa News Agency that investigations were launched in the first two weeks of July into allegations of political wrongdoing. 

The spokesman added that the inquiries began before President Kais Saied decided to dismiss the prime minister and freeze parliament. Ennahda and Heart of Tunisia have said Saied’s move is tantamount to “revolution.”

The investigation concerns three political parties – the country’s two largest, Ennahda and Heart of Tunisia, and Aish Tounsi – over  allegations that they received foreign funding during the 2019 election.

None of the parties were available for comment, according to Reuters. Tunisia is currently facing one of its toughest political challenges after Saied dismissed the PM and froze the country’s parliament for 30 days after an emergency meeting at his palace on Sunday night.

Ennahda has since called for calm after previously inviting its supporters onto the streets to protest the president’s move. While the situation has not escalated throughout the week, the army remains stationed around the parliament building to prevent further demonstrations.

Also on Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told his Tunisian counterpart, Othman Jerandi, that it was of the utmost importance that Tunisia quickly names a new prime minister, according to a foreign ministry statement.

French data regulator hits Monsanto with $472,000 fine for

illegally compiling watch list to secure support for weed killer

28 Jul, 2021 14:32

FILE PHOTO. © Reuters / Stephane Mahe

France’s data protection regulator has fined agricultural firm Monsanto €400,000 ($472,320) for illegally creating lists to help the company lobby support during a debate about the authorization of a key weed killer ingredient.

The case was launched by the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) after seven plaintiffs complained about Monsanto, now owned by German giant Bayer, compiling files on individuals who were involved in the public debate about the use of controversial weed killer glyphosate.

Which is, in my humble opinion, not just a weed killer but a bee and butterfly killer.

While the lists themselves were not deemed illegal, Monsanto fell foul of the data regulator by keeping the files secret and failing to inform individuals that their information was gathered, giving them the right to refuse to be included.

The French list of more than 200 people gave each individual a rating of one to five, marking influence, credibility and their level of support for the agricultural firm, specifically its pesticide and crop modification practices.

Siding with the plaintiffs, the CNIL fined Monsanto €400,000 over its data collection system and failure to provide individuals with the right to request their data be removed or not collected.

After Monsanto was acquired by Bayer in 2019, the German firm launched an internal investigation that found around 1,500 people had been targeted globally, “primarily within the EU,” but argued that there was no evidence anyone was illegally surveilled. 

The watch lists were created during a heated debate in the EU over the use of weedkiller Roundup amid lawsuits that claimed it has the potential to cause cancer. Monsanto has repeatedly claimed that Roundup and its main ingredient glyphosate is safe, denying there is any wrongdoing or cause for concern. 

The EU ultimately renewed the right to use glyphosate for a further five years in 2018 despite the US ordering Monsanto to pay $289 million in damages as part of a settlement over claims it causes cancer. The EU’s decision to stand by the use of the weedkiller means that it will be 2022, at the earliest, before the ingredient could be banned permanently from the continent.

I'm sure there was no business under the tables of the EU in 2018. I'm pretty sure.

While the lists were initially created to help lobby support during the debate across the EU, Monsanto continued collecting information and growing files on key figures until 2019, according to the CNIL, when media reports exposed the firm’s practices. However, despite the CNIL’s condemnation of the data collection, the regulator accepted that the information was not used to engage in any illegal lobbying, according to a statement from a Bayer spokesperson.

Maltese govt’s ‘culture of impunity’ led to murder of

anti-corruption journalist, independent inquiry finds

29 Jul, 2021 14:38

People place flowers on a makeshift memorial during a protest and vigil marking twenty-one months since the assassination of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. © REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

The Maltese government created a “culture of impunity” that led to the assassination of reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia five years ago, an inquiry has said while claiming the state bears responsibility for her death.

The investigative journalist was killed in October 2017 when a car bomb detonated under her vehicle as she drove out of her home. By the time of her death, 53-year-old Caruana Galizia had become known for her anti-corruption reporting, having accused Maltese officials of engaging in illicit activities. Malta’s former prime minister, Joseph Muscat, tendered his resignation in 2019 after an investigation into Caruana Galizia’s death implicated close associates of the then-leader. He has never been accused by police of being involved in her murder.

The 437-page report, published on Thursday, follows an independent inquiry that ran for two years and heard from numerous witnesses, including Muscat, other Maltese politicians, and journalists. Laying out its findings, the inquiry said that the government at the time of the killing had created “an extended culture of impunity.”

“The tentacles of impunity then spread to other regulatory bodies and the police, leading to a collapse in the rule of law,” the panel’s report highlighted.

While the inquiry did not specifically cite a motive for the murder of Caruana Galizia, it claimed that the assassination was either intrinsically or directly linked to her investigations. It also cited unwarranted closeness between businesses and government officials which were later found to result in irregularities on big project deals.

Following the publication of the report, Prime Minister Robert Abela released a statement declaring that “lessons must be drawn” from its findings, committing to “continue with greater resolve” to implement reforms to protect the rule of law.

Since her death, Caruana Galizia’s family have sought justice for her murder, with her son describing Malta as a “mafia state” and her mother claiming the journalist was assassinated for having “stood between the rule of law and those who sought to violate it.”

Meanwhile, a police investigation has indicted three men on charges of murdering Caruana Galizia. In February, one of the accused pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years behind bars. The other two suspects have not yet gone on trial. A fourth person has been charged with complicity over the murder, but denies the allegations.

The independent inquiry was launched two years after Caruana Galizia’s death, with Muscat giving the green light for its creation shortly before he left office. It was headed by former judge Michael Mallia, ex-chief justice Joseph Said Pullicino and Madam Justice Abigail Lofaro.

Muscat and others were outed by Galizia from the Panama Papers for hiding money offshore where it can't be taxed.

Tunisian president tells businessmen they won’t be prosecuted

if they return billions of dollars ‘looted’ from people

29 Jul, 2021 07:37

Tunisia's President Kais Saied (L) meets UTICA business union Samir Majoul at the Carthage Palace

outside capital Tunis. © Facebook / Présidence Tunisie

Tunisian President Kais Saied, who seized control of the government last weekend, said that billions of dollars had been stolen from the country and offered businessmen an option to return the money if they wanted to avoid prison.

During his meeting with the head of the UTICA business union, Samir Majoul, on Wednesday, Saied blamed 460 individuals for snatching 13.5 billion dinars (around $4.8 billion) from Tunisia.

He promised a crackdown on corruption, but, at the same time, insisted he had “no intention to harm or abuse” Tunisian entrepreneurs.

“I propose a penal reconciliation with businessmen involved in looting the people’s money and tax evasion in exchange for their commitment to projects ... instead of being prosecuted and imprisoned,” the president said in video footage of the meeting distributed by his office.

The man sounds brilliant! Hope he can make it work.

The businessmen on Saied’s list will be ranked in accordance with the amount of money they owe the country. Over the next ten years, they will be asked to fund the construction of schools, hospitals, and other socially important infrastructure, according to the proposal.

The head of state also urged traders to be “patriotic” and to reduce their prices, promising punishment for those caught speculating or hoarding goods.

Saied, who became president in 2019 after campaigning against corruption and the entrenchment of the political elite, used emergency powers to dismiss the government and freeze the parliament late on Sunday. He insisted the harsh move was necessary to “save” the country amid protests caused by people’s anger over its “dysfunctional” political system and crumbling healthcare provision.

His opponents have labeled the consolidation of power in Saied’s hands as a “coup” and a pushback against the achievements made by Tunisia during the Arab Spring uprising in 2014, and urged their supporters to take to the streets. However, the president has warned that the military would “respond with bullets” if the situation got out of hand.

Islam - This Day in History - Ottoman Advance Into Europe Halted in Extremely Bloody Siege of Malta

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Muslims Turn Malta Into the 'Image of Hell'

BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM

MAY 18, 2021 1:03 PM ET

The Siege of Malta: Siege and Bombardment of Saint Elmo, 27 May 1565

On this day in history, May 18, 1565, one of the most symbolically important military encounters between Islam and Europe began: the Ottoman Turks besieged the tiny island of Malta, in what was then considered the heaviest bombardment any locale had been subjected to.

Around the start of the sixteenth century, Muslim pirates from Algiers began to terrorize the Christian Mediterranean. When Suleiman “the Magnificent”—better known among Muslims as Suleiman “the Ghazi” (jihadi/raider)—became Ottoman sultan in 1520, he instantly took the most notorious of these Barbary pirates, Khair al-Din Barbarossa, into his service and helped him prosecute the sea jihad on Europe. Over the following two decades, hundreds of thousands of Europeans were enslaved, so that, by 1541, “Algiers teemed with Christian captives, and it became a common saying that a Christian slave was scarce a fair barter for an onion.”

Despite the seaborne jihad’s successes, “You will do no good,” a seasoned corsair counseled Suleiman, “until you have smoked out this nest of vipers.”  He was referring to the Knights Hospitallers, who came into being soon after the First Crusade (c.1099) and were now known as the Knights of Saint John, headquartered in Malta. Suleiman had evicted them from Rhodes in 1522—whence for two hundred years they had frustrated all Ottoman naval attempts—and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had bequeathed the island of Malta to the homeless Hospitallers in 1530. They were the emperor’s response to the sultan’s corsairs—and, for more than three decades, a thorn in Suleiman’s side.

In March 1565, after having finally decided to eliminate this “headquarters of infidels,” Suleiman dispatched one of the largest fleets ever assembled—carrying some thirty thousand Ottomans—to take the tiny island, which had a total fighting population of eight thousand. Pope Pius IV implored the kings of Europe to Malta’s aid, to no avail: the king of Spain “has withdrawn into the woods,” complained the pope, “and France, England and Scotland [are] ruled by women and boys.” Only the viceroy of neighboring Sicily responded, but he needed time to raise recruits.

Jean Parisot de Valette (1494–1568), the Grand Master of the Knights—“his disposition is rather sad,” wrote a contemporary, but “for his age [seventy-one], he is very robust” and “very devout”—made preparations for the forthcoming siege, including by explaining to his men what was at stake: “A formidable army composed of audacious barbarians is descending on this island,” he warned; “these persons, my brothers, are the enemies of Jesus Christ. Today it is a question of the defense of our Faith as to whether the book of the Evangelist [the Gospel] is to be superseded by that of the Koran. God on this occasion demands of us our lives, already vowed to His service. Happy will those be who first consummate this sacrifice.”

Four hundred and fifty-six years ago today, on May 18, the Ottomans commenced nonstop bombardment, first targeting St. Elmo, one of Malta’s key forts. “With the roar of the artillery and the arquebuses, the hair-raising screams, the smoke and fire and flame,” a chronicler wrote, “it seemed that the whole world was at the point of exploding.” The vastly outnumbered and soon wearied defenders, who were ordered to “fight bravely and sell their lives to the barbarians as dearly as possible,” did just that; and for every Christian killed defending the fort, numerous Muslim besiegers fell. After withstanding all that the Ottomans could throw against it for more than a month, on June 23, St. Elmo, by now a heap of rubble, was finally stormed and captured.

Virtually all 1,500 defenders were slaughtered. The same grisly fate Salah al-Din (Saladin) had centuries earlier consigned to Islam’s staunchest enemies—the Knights Templars and Hospitallers at the disastrous Battle of Hattin (1187)—was now meted out to their successors. The Knights of Saint John “were hung upside down from iron rings . . . and had their heads split, their chests open, and their hearts torn out.” Ottoman commander Mustafa ordered their mutilated corpses (along with one Maltese priest) nailed to wooden crosses and set adrift in the Grand Harbor in order to deride and demoralize the onlooking defenders.

It failed: the seventy-one-year-old Valette delivered a thundering and defiant speech before the huddled Christians, beheaded all Muslim prisoners, and fired their heads from cannon at the Turkish besiegers. The Ottomans proceeded to subject the rest of the island to, at that time, history’s most sustained bombardment (some 130,000 cannonballs were fired in total). “I don’t know if the image of hell can describe the appalling battle,” wrote a contemporary: “the fire, the heat, the continuous flames from the flamethrowers and fire hoops; the thick smoke, the stench, the disemboweled and mutilated corpses, the clash of arms, the groans, shouts, and cries, the roar of the guns . . . men wounding, killing, scrabbling, throwing one another back, falling and firing.”

Although the rest of the forts were reduced to rubble, much Muslim blood was spilled for each inch gained; for “when they got within arms’ reach the scimitar was no match for the long two-handed sword of the Christians.” Desperate fighting spilled into the streets, where even Maltese women and children participated.

It was now late August and the island was still not taken; that, and mass casualties led to mass demoralization in the Ottoman camp. Embarrassed talk of lifting the siege had already begun when Sicily’s viceroy Garcia de Toledo finally arrived with nearly ten thousand soldiers at St. Paul’s Bay. There, where the apostle was once shipwrecked, the final scene of this Armageddon played out as the fresh newcomers routed the retreating Ottomans, who finally fled on September 11—a day which, wittingly or unwittingly, would be avenged by the jihadi “descendants” of the Ottomans in 2001.

“So great was the stench in the bay,” which was awash with countless bloated Muslim corpses, “that no man could go near it.” As many as twenty thousand Ottomans and five thousand defenders died. After forty years of successful campaigning against Europe, Suleiman finally suffered his first major defeat. One year later he succumbed to death, aged seventy-one.

More importantly for Europe, a chink in the Ottoman armor was first perceived thanks to Malta’s spirited resistance; it showed that a tiny but dedicated force could hold out against what was till then deemed an unstoppable Ottoman war machine.

Accordingly, when in 1570 Ottoman forces invaded the island of Cyprus, the pope easily managed to form a “Holy League” of maritime Catholic nation-states, spearheaded by the Spanish Empire, in 1571. To everyone’s surprise—Christian and Muslim—the Holy League prevailed at the battle of Lepanto.  As Miguel Cervantes, who was at the naval clash, has the colorful Don Quixote say: “That day . . . was so happy for Christendom, because all the world learned how mistaken it had been in believing that the Turks were invincible by sea.”

But that sentiment was first realized six years earlier, by the heroic defense of Malta—when the tide of war between Islam and Europe first turned to the latter’s favor.

The above account was excerpted from the author’s book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West.

Raymond Ibrahim

Raymond Ibrahim, an expert in Islamic history and doctrine, is author of Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West (2018); Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013); and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). He has appeared on C-SPAN, Al-Jazeera, CNN, NPR, and PBS, and been published by the New York Times Syndicate, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Weekly Standard, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst. Formerly an Arabic linguist at the Library of Congress, Ibrahim has guest lectured at many universities, including the U.S. Army War College, briefed governmental agencies such as U.S. Strategic Command, and testified before Congress. He has been a visiting fellow/scholar at a variety of Institutes—from the Hoover Institution to the National Intelligence University—and is currently a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Friedman Rosen Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute. His full biography is available here.  Follow Raymond at Twitter and Facebook.

Corruption, Clientelism and Murder - Malta Emerges as the EU's Next Problem Child

Two years after the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta's vast cesspool of corruption has become impossible to ignore. The EU's smallest member state is on the brink of failure.

By Frank Hornig and Juan Moreno

Michael Vella, father of late Daphne Caruana Galizia, holding a portrait of his late daughter

at a protest demanding justice for her. Darrin Zammit Lupi / REUTERS

"There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate."

Daphne Caruana Galizia on Oct. 16, 2017, in her last blog entry, posted 24 minutes before her murder.

It's tempting to ask Corinne Vella how she avoided going crazy in the last two years. It is one thing, after all, to lose your sister to a hit job -- to learn that she was murdered in cold blood by a car bomb. But it is quite another to live with the conviction that neither the police, nor the country's government nor public prosecutors seem to have much of an interest in getting to the bottom of the crime.

Vella is sitting in the lobby of the luxurious Phoenicia Hotel in Valletta, the capital of the Mediterranean island nation of Malta. Jazz is playing in the background and the waiters wear ties, at pains to serve guests from the correct side. Vella is a serene woman, perhaps even shy. But she's here because she wants to talk about her sister and the factors that led to her death. It's the strategy she uses to avoid going crazy. "Daphne basically became my job. There isn't much else I've done in the last two years."

Vella is the sister of Malta's most famous journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia. Daphne, as everyone in the country calls her, was murdered in a targeted killing on Oct. 16, 2017. She was a blogger, and her frequently extremely well reported, occasionally biting and sometimes humiliating reports were required reading on the island. Some of her entries were read more than 400,000 times. Everyone knew Daphne, many were afraid of her -- and not a few hated her.

"When Daphne was killed, people wrote on social media that the witch had finally got what she deserved," says Vella. Her family closed ranks after the murder and resolved to do everything in their power to ensure that the murderer would not go unpunished. Aunts, nieces, sons: They all protested at government agencies, got European institutions involved and spoke at journalism conferences.

The investigation, meanwhile, proceeded only sluggishly. Police arrested three suspects, ex-convicts who officials felt could have been responsible because of their criminal records and because of clues that seemed to point in their direction, but there was no obvious motive. Why should these men kill a journalist? Caruana Galizia never wrote a word about them. Who really wanted the prominent journalist dead?

Moving Quickly

Now, a bit more than two years after the attack, things have suddenly begun moving quickly. Two weeks ago, Yorgen Fenech, a businessman and a member of one of Malta's wealthiest families, was arrested on his yacht -- apparently just as the multimillionaire was preparing to leave the island. He has since been charged with accessory to murder. Despite incriminating witness testimony, Fenech continues to deny any wrongdoing. He has, however, accused a member of the Maltese government of being involved in the murder: Keith Schembri, chief of staff to the country's prime minister.

Schembri resigned last week, despite insisting he is innocent. But then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also announced his intention to step down in January. Opposition politicians in parliament demanded that he not wait so long and vacate his office immediately. Meanwhile, demonstrators pelted Muscat with eggs.

"It has been the two most chaotic weeks in Malta's recent history," says Corinne Vella, adding that she has spent almost the entirety of the last few days on her mobile phone because of the torrent of news. For the first time, she now has the feeling that she may ultimately learn who killed her sister.

Daphne Caruana Galizia's sister, Corinne Vella - Gianmarco Maraviglia/ / DER SPIEGEL

Malta, the European Union's smallest member state, generally stays out of the headlines. Two-and-a-half years ago, DER SPIEGEL and other European media outlets involved with European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) published the "Malta Files," which revealed how German companies were able to save on taxes by establishing themselves on the island. Beyond that, not much tends to be written about the country and its 475,000 residents.

Now, though, dubious links between Maltese business leaders, politicians and organized crime have become visible, and it increasingly looks as though Malta operates by a different rulebook than the rest of the EU. The separation of powers in the country appears to be largely non-existent, with police doing the bidding of politicians and the anti-money-laundering agency joining the judiciary in turning its back all too often on malfeasance, instead of investigating, prosecuting and punishing criminal behavior.

A poster of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat - Guglielmo Mangiapane/ REUTERS

Alarmed, the European Parliament sent a delegation to Malta a few days ago, with the European Commission in Brussels warning the country's government to refrain from exerting political influence on the investigation. The murder of Caruana Galizia, it would seem, is no longer just a problem for Maltese politics. It is now emerging as an acute threat to European values, the rule of law, the freedom of the press and a rules-based market economy. Ultimately, it is about how many banana republics the EU can tolerate within its ranks.

An Economic Miracle?

There is much more on this story at Der Spiegel.

Middleman Gives Details to Malta Court of Plot to Kill Reporter

Corruption is Everywhere - in Malta's Government and Business

Anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia

was killed by car bomb in 2017

Thomson Reuters 

A person holds a hand on a picture of Daphne Caruana Galizia during a demonstration to demand justice

over the killing of the journalist in Valletta, Malta. (Yara Nardi/Reuters)

The self-confessed middleman in the murder of a journalist tells a court that a wealthy Maltese businessman was the brains behind the killing, but says people tied to the government might also be implicated.

Melvin Theuma received immunity from prosecution last week in return for information that would lead to the conviction of the alleged plot ring leader, multi-millionaire entrepreneur Yorgen Fenech.

Fenech has been charged with complicity over the 2017 murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia by a car bomb. He has denied the accusations and blamed former government chief of staff Keith Schembri and other top officials.

Schembri was arrested last month but later released. He has denied involvement in the killing which has shone a spotlight on allegations of rampant corruption in Malta's overlapping worlds of politics and business. Schembri later resigned.

Theuma gave a detailed account of how the 38-year-old Fenech had contacted him in 2017 to organize the hit, providing €150,000 (about $226,500 Cdn at the time) for the contract.

The plot was put on hold before national elections in June 2017 but reactivated the night the ruling Labour party was returned to power, Theuma told a packed courtroom.

"I can assure you, Yorgen Fenech was the only mastermind. Only he spoke to me," said Theuma, a taxi driver with links to the criminal underworld.

Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech has denied being complicit in the killing of the journalist. (The Associated Press)

Fenech wanted Caruana Galizia dead, because he thought she was going to publish an incriminating story about his uncle, Theuma said.

His uncle, huh? Certainly, there were people in Malta's business sector and in the government, including the Prime Minister, who were implicated for tax dodging in the Panama Papers.

He said he was called to government headquarters after agreeing to arrange the killing and that Schembri himself gave him a tour of the building, which includes Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's offices. The pair had their photograph taken.

Muscat has denied wrongdoing but acknowledged he could have handled the aftermath better and said he will step down next month.

Theuma was subsequently told he had been put on the government payroll and received a paycheque for three or four months. "If you asked me, I wouldn't know what my job was at the ministry, as I never went," he said.

He said he paid three local men to carry out the killing. The trio were later arrested and are awaiting trial, having pleaded not guilty. They sat in court stony-faced.

Theuma recounted his panic after the alleged triggermen were arrested and news emerged that one was cooperating with police.

He said he was then contacted again by an employee from in the government headquarters whom he named as Kenneth. In an apparent attempt to buy their silence, Kenneth said the three suspects would be released on bail and given €1 million, though the bail and did not arrive.

Made secret recordings

Theuma said he asked Fenech whether Schembri had sent Kenneth to him, but got no answer. Scared for his own safety, he started making secret recordings of his conversations with the businessman, which he has given police.

"I started to think they would either lock me up or kill me," Theuma said. He also acknowledged writing a note where he said both Schembri and Fenech ordered the hit. In court, he distanced himself from the accusation, making clear he had no evidence.

With Malta under scrutiny, the new head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, urged a thorough investigation without political interference. "It is crucial that all those responsible are put to justice as soon as possible," she said.

A European parliament delegation, which has spent two days in Malta to review rule of law within the EU's smallest member, recommended that Muscat go immediately.

"There has to be absolute confidence in the [investigation] and I think when he is in office, that confidence is not there," said Sophie In't Veld, a Dutch member of parliament who led the mission.

German member Birgit Sippel told reporters that even with Muscat gone, it would take time to rebuild Malta's reputation and suggested the entire government should go.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to Depart in January After Corruption/Murder Scandal

By Allen Cone

(UPI) -- Joseph Muscat announced Sunday he will leave as Malta's prime minister and Labour Party chief in January amid an investigation of a murdered journalist investigating corruption.

Muscat, who has been in power since March 11, 2013, said on national television in the central Mediterranean nation he will ask the ruling party to choose his successor on Jan. 12. His second term was to end in 2021.

"Malta needs to start a new chapter and only I can give that signal," Muscat said during the address, which included a recitation of the government's achievements over the past 6 1/2 years.

He had met for four hours with Labour's parliamentary group during which they gave "unanimous support to all decisions which the prime minister will be taking."

In the capital, Valletta, protesters gathered to demand Muscat's immediate resignation.

Demands for his departure grew after businessman Yorgen Fenech was charged Saturday with complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Fenech denies the allegations. In 2017, Galiza was killed by a car bomb as she investigated corruption among Malta's business and political elite.

Fenech was identified in 2016 as the owner of Dubai-registered 17 Black in the Panama Papers, a collection of leaked confidential documents showing how wealthy and powerful companies around the world use tax havens to get around the law.

Muscat's chief of staff Keith Schembri and acting tourism minister Konrad Mizzi resigned Tuesday. They have denied any wrongdoing though they had been accused of corruption by the journalist.

Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio and their friend Vincent Muscat have been charged with triggering the bomb. They have pleaded not guilty in pre-trial proceedings.

Members of her family have said the prime minister should resign because he had failed to take action to clean up politics in Malta.

Muscat said investigations were ongoing and insisted "no one is above the law."

"It is not right that a person, with her good and bad, who contributed to democracy had to be killed this way... The anger and disappointment are understandable and it is never justified to somehow justify the murder. But neither can disorder and violence be justified under the guise of protest," Muscat said.

Malta Chief of Staff Resigns Amid Probe of Journalist's Slaying

Corruption is Everywhere - Maybe Even in Malta

By Don Jacobson

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, shown here during a July visit to Prague, announced the resignation of

chief of staff Keith Schembri Tuesday. File Photo by Martin Divisek/EPA-EFE 

(UPI) -- The chief of staff to Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat resigned Tuesday amid an investigation into the 2017 slaying of a journalist who was probing alleged government corruption.

Keith Schembri, who was also Malta's acting tourism minister, submitted his resignation following a meeting of government ministers, Muscat told reporters in Valletta.

"I had various discussions with Keith Schembri, and he said he would be resigning in the day," Muscat said. "I thank him for the contribution he gave... he had a crucial role, and I thank him for shouldering this burden."

Curious statement isn't it? Since the PM was also under scrutiny by Galizia!

Schembri himself had no comment.

Multiple media reports indicated he'd been taken to police headquarters for questioning regarding the car-bombing death of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who had published reports linking Schembri, another government official and a Maltese businessman to secretive Panamanian shell companies.

Car Bomb Kills Maltese Journalist Who Accused PM of Corruption

Three Charged in Murder of Maltese Journalist

Her reporting was based on documents leaked from a company owned by Yorgen Fenech, who had won a government contract to run a major power station. Fenech was arrested last week after resigning from his family-owned business, Electrogas.

While Schembri has denied any involvement in Galizia's slaying, opposition politicians demanded he be fired from his chief of staff role. Muscat initially resisted, but changed his mind this week.

I suspect there is much more to this story that we don't yet know.

Three Charged in Murder of Maltese Journalist

Corruption is Everywhere - Even in Malta

By Daniel Uria 

Three men were charged in the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia on Tuesday.

Photo by Olivier Hoslet/EPA

(UPI) -- Three men have been charged in the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb last month.

The three suspects include brothers George Degiorgio,55, and Alfred Degiorgio, 53, as well as Vincent Muscat, 55.

All three pleaded not guilty and were remanded in custody after a preliminary court hearing.

They were among 10 Maltese nationals arrested on Monday in connection with Galizia's murder.

Investigators focused on the three suspects based on telephone intercepts including a call from a mobile phone that allegedly triggered the bomb, the Times of Malta reported.

Galizia, 53, was killed when a car bomb exploded in her vehicle in October, after she filed a police report 15 days earlier to reveal she had been threatened.

Prior to her death she accused Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of wrongdoing, linking him and his wife to the Panama Papers -- some of which detailed financial information including fraud and tax evasion.

Car Bomb Kills Maltese Journalist Who Accused PM of Corruption

Corruption is Everywhere

By Danielle Haynes  

UPI -- A car bomb on Malta's southern island killed a journalist who linked the government to the Panama Papers scandal, local police said Monday.

Daphne Caruana Galizia, 53, died when her car exploded shortly after she left her home in Bidnija, BBC News reported. The bomb left her vehicle in several pieces along a road and nearby field around 3 p.m.

Caruana Galizia filed a police report 15 days before her death saying she had been threatened, The Times of Malta reported.

Earlier this year, she accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of wrongdoing, linking him and his wife to the Panama Papers. The papers included documents detailing financial information, some of which included fraud and tax evasion.

Despite the accusations, Muscat condemned her death. Police opened a murder investigation.

"I condemn without reservations this barbaric attack on a person and on the freedom of expression in our country," he said in a televised statement.

Muscat said there was "no justification ... in any way" for her death.

"I will not rest before justice is done," he said.

Thousands of people gathered Monday night in Sliema for a candlelight vigil. Maltese nationals in London also held an event outside Malta's High Commission in Mayfair.

Bidnija, Malta

EU Proposes Supporting Libya to Tackle Migrant Crisis

The only question is, why did it take the EU 2 years to come up with this idea?

One would have thought it to be the first thing they would think of.

By Andrew V. Pestano

Scores of migrants cling to the hull of a fishing boat as it made its way across the Mediterranean Sea 

on May 25. Europe has been dealing with a migrant crisis for years. Libya is now being used as a

gateway to smuggle people out of north Africa into Europe and EU leaders in Malta on Thursday

discussed possible ways to curb the circumstance. Photo courtesy Marina Militare Italiana

(UPI) -- European Union leaders in a Malta meeting proposed supporting the Libyan coast guard through training and equipment, and increasing actions against human smugglers in efforts to curb an inflow of migrants.

Human smugglers have been using Libya, which has a split government and no nationwide security apparatus in place, as a gateway to smuggle people from various African countries to Europe following a deal between the EU and Turkey, once the gateway, to tackle the migrant crisis.

Italy's coast guard on Thursday said more than 1,750 migrants had been rescued in the Mediterranean Sea within 24 hours. More than 180,000 migrants reached Italy last year, while about 5,000 died along the way.

The EU has a military presence in the Mediterranean Sea in the international waters off the coast of Libya but EU leaders have proposed increasing that support to find and shut down existing human smuggling routes.

"The status quo is unacceptable and something has to be done, this is why we want to train the Libyan coast guard and engage with communities inside the country," a EU diplomat said in Malta.

EU leaders in Malta also want humanitarian repatriation of migrants whose asylum requests have been rejected and improved conditions for migrants. Prior to the Malta meeting, EU Council President Donald Tusk said breaking up human smuggling operations and stopping dangerous sea travel "is the only way to stop people dying in the desert and at sea, and this is also the only way to gain control over migration in Europe."

Fayez al-Seraj, Libya's leader who leads a fragile U.N.-backed government, on Thursday met with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni to sign a bilateral agreement to increase cooperation and to fight against human smuggling.

"If we want to give real strength and legs to managing migration flows, then there needs to be an economic commitment by the whole of the EU," Gentiloni said Thursday.