Xhieda ta’ Corinne Vella – 17 ta’ Lulju 2020
Fl-Atti tal-Inkjesta datata 19 ta' Novembru 2019, rigward skont it- Termini ta’ Referenza ta’ l-Inkjesta Pubblika dwar l-Assassinju ta’ Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Seduta miżmuma llum il-Gimgha 17 ta’ Lulju, 2020.
Corinne Vella, bint Michael Vella u Rose Marie nee’ Mamo, imwielda Tas- Sliema u residenti Lija riprodotta bil-gurament tghid:
Corrine Vella : May I speak in English because I . . . Imh. A. Lofaro : Yes no problem, in English.
Corrine Vella : Ok, Dr. Azzopardi mentioned earlier that I wanted to present some material. Can you hear me?
Imh. A. Lofaro : Yes.
Corrine Vella : That I want to present some material – I told you it’s really very important particularly given the purpose of this inquiry that there is no better testimony than the person herself, so I the Court if I could present this recording.
Imh. A. Lofaro : So it’s a recording then? Corrine Vella : It’s a recording.
Dr. J. Azzopardi: Din hija l-vuci ta’ Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Corrine Vella : I think it’s very important to be heard given the nature of what we have been talking about today.
Imh. A. Lofaro : And can it be presented as well as some kind of . . . Corrine Vella : Yes I can send you – yes.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Yes please we will need that. Yes you can play it . . .
Corrine Vella : The particular clip that I’m going to play is on line, I can also – already sent the link to the Registrar so you will have it all . . .
Imh. A. Lofaro : Yes we need the link. Corrine Vella : Yes.
Imh. A. Lofaro : But I think we should hear it as well. Corrine Vella : Yes of course.
Corrine Vella : I am going to do that. (The recording is being played).
Corrine Vella : I think we can stop there because this is Daphne herself . . .
Imh. A. Lofaro : Can you read out the transcript because we couldn’t really understand.
Corrine Vella : Yes I can at least verbalise part of it. There is . . . Imh. A. Lofaro : I thought you have a transcript perhaps? No?
Corrine Vella : I don’t have the transcript here I’m afraid. There is a transcript.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok if you can tell us the gist.
Corrine Vella : Yes, ok. Basically I can tell you the gist. This is Daphne speaking to an interviewer in a private setting for research project where she was not thinking she would not be identified at any point. So she was speaking openly and honestly without the expectations of an audience knowing who she was.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok.
Corrine Vella : The research was done for the Council of Europe and it was about the safety of journalist within Europe. There were interviews of journalists across Europe.
Imh. A. Lofaro : When was this done?
Corrine Vella : This was done shortly before she was killed. Imh. A. Lofaro : Oh I see. Ok.
Corrine Vella : Now what she says in her interview which is much longer than the clip I’ve played, is that she has been turned into a national scapegoat.
Imh. A. Lofaro : I’ve heard these words before.
Corrine Vella : She is talking about scapegoating and has been turned into a national scapegoat and this has gone on for the last thirty
(30) years.
Imh. A. Lofaro : She had said this. Corrine Vella : She said this.
Corrine Vella : This is in the clip which I played. And for the sake of completeness what I will do is provide a link to the article where this clip is available and we will arrange to have the interview also.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Did she explain how and why she was turned into a scapegoat?
Corrine Vella : The interview is much, much more longer than this clip. Imh. A. Lofaro : Did she mention threats perhaps?
Corrine Vella : Yes the interview was about threats. Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok.
Corrine Vella : Yes.
Imh. A. Lofaro : And this is relevant hux. Corrine Vella : Yes.
Dr. J. Azzopardi : What year was that?
Corrine Vella : Two thousand and seventeen (2017).
Imh. A. Lofaro : But she said – shortly before she was assassinated. Corrine Vella : A few days before her murder.
Imh. A. Lofaro : A few days ukoll?
Corrine Vella : Yes. Yes a few days before her murder. Dr. Peter Caruana Galizia : Two (2) weeks.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Two (2) weeks. Two (2) weeks – beginning of October then.
Corrine Vella : Yes, October two thousand and seventeen (2017). So it was in that context that I put together some material that I thought relevant to the testimony today.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Kurt Farrugia’s testimony?
Corrine Vella : Yes. It is all open source. It all available, it is all referenced. There is nothing which is from any private domain except one piece of information which is a WhatsApp Daphne had sent me in April two thousand and seventeen (2017). She was held responsible for the reason – she was given as the reason Malta had an early election in two thousand and seventeen (2017) and the specific reason for that early election was what she had written about Pilatus Bank, a Panama Company Egrant and the Prim Minister’s wife.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ehe. By him? He gave this reason?
Corrine Vella : We have been told repeatedly, it’s all over the media, she caused such turbulence in the country that I had to call an early election.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ehe.
Corrine Vella : The sequence of dates shows – and that’s why I included that WhatsApp message – sequence of dates shows that this is not correct.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok.
Corrine Vella : I have outlined that in the document. The document also shows it’s not correct that there were particularly good relations with Kurt Farrugia. She has always said that she often asked questions which he answered but the really important questions went unanswered and he got to the point of actually blocking her calls and not taking them. Except for one memorable time when he called her at six fifty six (6:56) in the morning because he wanted her to remove something from her blog and then he continued messaging her throughout the day.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Maybe he can be recalled so that will be in the interest of fairness and justice. He should be recalled and faced with this.
Corrine Vella : Yes, this is something she had written about in her blog. Imh. A. Lofaro : If we don’t do this it will not be fair.
Corrine Vella : . . . . Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok.
Corrine Vella : And what the document has looked at, because you can’t condense thirty (30) years worth of harassment in a few hours or even in a few pages. What I did was I looked specifically at around peak times of this kind thing used to happen it’s generally around election times.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ehe.
Corrine Vella : So I started by looking at two thousand and eight (2008) and there is information here about the university debate which Mr. Farrugia referred to.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Yes, I remember that.
Corrine Vella : He said she was joining in the hackling which is absolutely untrue. I can attest to that because I was seated right next to
. . .
Imh. A. Lofaro : You were there, I know you were there.
Corrine Vella : I was there. I know that Mr. Farrugia was there – at the time was a reporter from Malta Star he used to edit, he was accompanied by a cameraman from the Labour Party News . .
.
Imh. A. Lofaro : He did say that. Corrine Vella : Yes he said that. Imh. A. Lofaro : He did.
Corrine Vella : And he did not know me at the time. I was mistaken for an eighteen (18) year old student apparently because it was in Malta Star and it was changed when I wrote to them that I was actually forty two (42), so this is why I can speak from first hand.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok.
Corrine Vella : I also looked at the two thousand and thirteen (2013) election where Daphne’s face was put on a billboard along with Government politicians . . .
Imh. A. Lofaro : Yes.
Corrine Vella : . . . and she had remarked even then and written about that – that at the time a lot of people didn’t know who she was.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Her husband mentioned this when he testified. Corrine Vella : Yes.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Yes.
Corrine Vella : A lot of people didn’t know who she was . . . Imh. A. Lofaro : Yes.
Corrine Vella : And that’s when they got to know what she looked like, so people would harass her you know shouting her in the streets, you know staring at her.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Yes.
Corrine Vella : At one time she was assaulted. These are just key events – there are lot of them similar problems. And possibly the
worst case was in the two thousand and seventeen (2017) election, because the harassment had continued for a long time before the election actually took place. She was completely discredited as a credible source, even though her major stories had been proven over and over again. Government would not take her questions about the Panama Papers. They would not take her questions about Pilatus Bank. They would not take her questions about corruption. They would not take her questions about anything. She tried to call people – they would not take her calls.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Whether she tried to call identified in the dossier? Corrine Vella : I didn’t list every instance, because off course I . . . Imh. A. Lofaro : But you know, is Kurt Farrugia mentioned.
Corrine Vella : Kurt Farrugia is one of the people she . . . Imh. A. Lofaro : He has to be recalled, ok.
Corrine Vella : The reason it’s that important is because as Head of Communications and an official Government’s spokesperson, Mr. Farrugia is responsible for all the communications with media.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Yes he did say that as well.
Corrine Vella : Yes which he recognises. I’d like to also point out because I actually mention it in this document that the document given to a journalist which was doctored – that document was a private document written for Daphne’s family and did not exist anywhere in the public domain. This was in the hands of the . . . committee of the European Parliament, somehow a copy of that document found it’s way to the Prim Minister’s Office. They decided to rebut it point by point and possibly foolishly they gave the original to the journalist who was interviewing them and then gave them a doctored copy at that which was completely incorrect with all page numbers wrong. There was nothing in that document that had not been in the family document, but there was material in the family document that did not appear in the document given to the journalist.
Imh. A. Lofaro : I see.
Corrine Vella : So it was a doctored document. Imh. A. Lofaro : Ehe.
Corrine Vella : This was possibly a clumsy area on the part of Government but the question remains how did that document get into their hands when it was private. There is plenty more here you know in terms of what happened to Daphne especially in the last year of her life. You know frequent references to her as a hate blogger, that was by a Government MP Franco Mercieca when she had written about Keith Schembri’s health problems and her interest there was purely because if he has a terminal illness then we should be even more interested in his affairs. The Justice Minister Owen Bonnici called her a hate blogger. There was a reply to the Council of Europe, an official reply by Malta’s State Representative referencing Daphne’s blog as a hate blog. There were reference – it happened so frequently I just stopped copying that down. But there are many copies of those references here. There were, you know harassment of her family, you know the whole murder was treated as a PR problem for Government rather than a crime violating somebody’s rights. I got to know about the last two (2) arrest in December because the Prim Minister tweeted about them. I hadn’t known it was happening, so the Prim Minister tweeted it at Kurt Farrugia who re-tweeted it and that’s how Daphne’s family got to know about those arrests in connection with her murder. There were several instances not of misinformation but disinformation, deliberate attempt to spread things. You know, the list is endless, I had to stop somewhere. It is a sixty
(60) page document, fifty nine (59) or sixty (60). Fifty nine
(59) page document. I’ve put samples of everything that I’ve reported including a coordinated attack involving Glenn Bedingfield and Neville Gafa`
Imh. A. Lofaro : Involving who?
Corrine Vella : Glenn Bedingfield and Neville Gafa` and unfortunately a newspaper which is … independent where the same picture was used in very quick succession by all the people concerned, on Facebook, on social media.
Imh. A. Lofaro : They used this picture? Corrine Vella : Yes the same picture. Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok.
Corrine Vella : And the point of the photograph was to position Daphne as she had been repeatedly as the PN blogger, which somehow justified the attacks on her. The absurdity of that is that the photograph taken at St. Paul’s feast in Valletta – which is a feast we always went to since we were children. She written about that, she was there to meet myself, my other sisters and Simon Busuttil happened to be in the crowd and she greeted him. He is someone she knew and it’s what one does. Somebody took a photo of her and immediately this became a story. It just goes on and on. I could be here for thirty (30) years telling you about it but it’s in this document here.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok the dossier is being exhibited.
Corrine Vella : There is just one more document I think is really important because we have heard repeatedly that Daphne’s you know discovery of the Panama Papers and it wasn’t given the credibility it deserves. There is a blog post of hers dated March the second (2) two thousand and seventeen (2017) where she references a press release by the Police of Malta.
Imh. A. Lofaro : By whom?
Corrine Vella : The Police of Malta. Imh. A. Lofaro : The Police.
Corrine Vella : Yes, which was published that same day. The press release is number 115/17 which has mysteriously been removed from the police website.
Imh. A. Lofaro : I see.
Corrine Vella : The press release is by – references a – you know a story which appeared in Nazzjon which had intimated that Konrad
Mizzi and Keith Schembri were about to be charged and the Commissioner seems to have wanted this press release to be issued and he said : Ir-rapport huwa biss interprotezzjonali, skorretta tal-mod kif wiegeb il-Kummissarju tal-Pulizija kif diga kien intqal fl-24 ta’ Marzu ta’ l-2016, ma jirrizulta l-ebda suspett ragonevoli li twettaq reat kriminali li jista’ jwassal ghal investigazzjoni. The significant thing about that date is that on the twenty fourth (24th) of March two thousand and seventeen (2017) the Panama Papers were not public and the Commissioner of Police had not yet received report from the FIAU.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok, ok. I remember this.
Corrine Vella : The press release is no longer available.
Imh. A. Lofaro : What about press releases going back to that period of time have they also been removed?
Corrine Vella : There are no press releases for that particular day. I searched before and after . . .
Imh. A. Lofaro : So that day was struck off.
Corrine Vella : There is nothing on that day and you can from the sequence .
. .
Imh. A. Lofaro : And before they are there, right?
Corrine Vella : Ok I didn’t go into the entire website because – Imh. A. Lofaro : What did you do?
Corrine Vella : But I noticed, because I wanted to find the original press release . . .
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok.
Corrine Vella : And I couldn’t find it anywhere so I went to the website before and after that particular number . . .
Imh. A. Lofaro : Let’s go to before.
Corrine Vella : The number – the numbering sequence continues after the day that was published and it continues from the day after.
Imh. A. Lofaro : That day is obliterated completely. Corrine Vella : That day is obliterated.
Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok. Ok.
Corrine Vella : I don’t know of other press releases are obliterated. I haven’t checked.
Imh. A. Lofaro : But this regards police right?
Corrine Vella : That regards the police – the coverage of the Panama Papers. Imh. A. Lofaro : Ok. Ok. Dr. Azzopardi, any more questions? No.