Joseph Muscat’s den

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been condemned to five years’ imprisonment despite being acquitted of all corruption charges.

His lengthy prison sentence was punishment for his role in a group that discussed the possibility of engaging in corrupt practices.

Sarkozy has been convicted of criminal association. He will be incarcerated, even if he appeals.

Malta’s disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat also formed part of a group, a WhatsApp group that included criminal suspect and 17 Black owner Yorgen Fenech and another criminal suspect, Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Yet Muscat isn’t waiting to check in at Paris’ historic prison, La Santé.  Instead, he’s checking in at some of the most exclusive holiday resorts while gallivanting around the world.

Not a week goes by without more damning revelations about that den of evil and corruption that was Muscat’s administration.

It was revealed in court that just after 4am on 20 November 2019, Schembri’s personal assistant at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Charlene Bianco Farrugia, texted Yorgen Fenech: “You took care (sic) about what K said re grande fratello?”

“What do you mean?” Fenech replied.  “He told me that they’re following you,” she replied.  K, of course, was her boss, Keith Schembri.

Just hours later, Fenech was arrested. Bianco Farrugia had accompanied Schembri on a trip to Las Vegas funded by Fenech. They were also joined by the MFSA CEO Joseph Cuschieri and the Authority’s legal counsel Edwina Licari.

The suspect was being given advance warning from the OPM that he was being “followed”.  He was being helped and advised by Schembri’s personal assistant to evade the police and justice.

“Is K helping or not?” Bianco Farrugia insisted on asking.  “So far… but he is playing his game,” Fenech answered.

On 18 November 2019, just two days before Fenech’s arrest, Bianco Farrugia texted him with a message from Schembri: “K needs to talk to you”.  Fenech later messaged back, “I spoke to him”.

Bianco Farrugia proved a reluctant and challenging witness at Schembri’s criminal proceedings. She had to be reminded repeatedly that she was testifying under oath. She feigned ignorance and memory failures to evade questions.  Even the court noted, “We’ve got to spoon-feed her”.

Her replies to questioning on the witness stand included, “I do not remember anything, I do not recall the context in which this was said”.  She was forced to admit that the “K” she referred to in her text messages with Fenech was indeed her boss, Keith Schembri.

She denied knowing who was “following” Fenech.  She claimed that she “just knew” someone was following him.  She told the court that she “assumed” Schembri informed her that Fenech was being followed.

In Joseph Muscat’s OPM, nobody knows anything, nobody remembers anything. Schembri lost his phone to make sure he “remembered” nothing. Muscat frantically googled how to scrub his phone and refused to give police the passcode to his mobile and electronic devices. He, too, wanted to “forget” everything.

Like his closest members of staff, Muscat is scared stiff that the truth will eventually come out.

During the same court session, disgraced former deputy police commissioner Silvio Valletta testified. He informed the court that he would call Schembri to tell him that “a meeting was needed” to brief Muscat on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder investigation.

When Vince Muscat, il-Kohhu, communicated to police his willingness to provide information in exchange for a presidential pardon, Valletta immediately informed Keith Schembri – “We need to talk since there is a person willing to spill the beans on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s case”.

Meanwhile, court testimony revealed that Kenneth Camilleri, one of Joseph Muscat’s security guards, met Melvin Theuma, the middleman in Caruana Galizia’s murder, on more than one occasion. At one such meeting, Theuma was heard telling Muscat’s bodyguard “get them bail” referring to convicted hitmen Alfred and George Degiorgio.

Meanwhile, Muscat was busy keeping up his friendship with Fenech.  Muscat invited Fenech to his exclusive birthday bash at Girgenti Palace and accepted his lavish gifts.

Nicolas Sarkozy must be cursing his bad luck.  He must be thinking, Why can’t France be more like Malta?