Repubblika notes that once again it had to be a private initiative to bring a serious case of corruption before the Courts. A Magistrate has acceded to Jason Azzopardi’s request for a magisterial inquiry into the serious allegation that thousands of false ID cards were issued on the basis of falsified documents and through the theft of the identity of thousands of Maltese citizens who found their homes used as false addresses of people they never heard of.
Despite all the documents and evidence already in the public domain, the police did nothing. Presumably, if someone were to ask Commissioner Anġlu Gafà why he has done nothing, he would say that “he is still processing”.
Meanwhile, these allegations are not only shocking because government officials with political connections have pocketed thousands of euros. This has more or less become normal. This is shocking because these allegations reveal an enormous risk to national security and a risk to families living in houses whose address has been stolen.
If these allegations are proven, then it is clear that the Maltese authorities have no idea where people live. They do not know whether the names appearing on public records are real people and live where they say they live. If they need to search for them, they are unlikely to find them.
We must say that this does not surprise us. The passport sales scheme relies on lies about the addresses of those who buy a Maltese passport. The government knew that probably every address given in that scheme was a fictitious address. It should not be surprised now that the lies institutionalised by the passport scheme have now been multiplied by many thousands in the illegal sale of ID cards.
These are not just ethical problems or problems of criminality. They are also an indication that the Maltese state has lost the ability to administer even the most basic thing: the official certification of the identity of people living in Malta. When one sees a Maltese identity card, one now has to doubt whether the information on it can be believed.
Repubblika thanks Jason Azzopardi who has done on his own what the Maltese police and prosecutors refused to do. We thank the sources who helped him request a magisterial inquiry, and we join his appeal for more witnesses and victims to tell the inquiry what they know about these allegations.
At the same time we see the need for an administrative inquiry to publicly and independently evaluate the risks to national security and the viability of public records due to what is alleged to have happened in this scandal.