Labour leader Alfred Sant yesterday revealed that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had reported the case of Nationalist candidate Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando to the police for investigation into the Mistra Valley scandal.
Speaking outside police headquarters in Floriana after presenting documents to Police Commissioner John Rizzo about the case around 2.30pm, Sant revealed the latest twist to the unfolding story that saw the Prime Minister reporting Sant’s allegations of exchange of money to the Commissioner.
“The prime minister did not say publicly that besides requesting the MEPA auditor to investigate the case he had also referred the case to the police commissioner,” Sant said outside the police depot.
“Now we just got to know that the prime minister requested the police commissioner’s investigation too.”
The news came as an unexpected revelation during the day given that it was the commissioner himself who told the Labour leader that Gonzi had referred the case to him for investigation.
“I came here to ask the police commissioner to investigate the Mistra case,” Sant said, alleging that “the unexplainable way this permit has been issued despite the reasons and objections to it, as well as the public and influential position of the landowner, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, stink of improper and/or corrupt behaviour, and of criminal behaviour, in the process that led to the disregard of MEPA’s policies.”
Although he had called the police commissioner a smokescreen (paraventu) last week, Sant did not reply to questions why he was now referring the case to the police chief he had so easily dismissed on other cases. He just limited himself to saying the Labour delegation was there to do its duty in the public interest.
He added that he could not present the other documents he claimed were in his hand in last Sunday’s mass meeting as it would endanger the whistleblowers who lifted the lid on this case.
“I haven’t passed on those documents because we don’t have a Whistleblower Act,” Sant said.
Sant said he presented a dossier that traced all the MEPA documents related to Pullicino Orlando’s company – De Rohan Antiques Limited – which had acquired the Mistra land on 12 February 1999.

Sant’s statement
In his statement to the police commissioner, Sant said De Rohan Antiques Limited is today Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s exclusive property which bought 2,182 metres squared of land in Mistra Bay through a contract signed on 12 February 1999.
The land was bought as a listed and green area. Despite the ecological sensitivity of the site, MEPA twice refused permit for an agricultural reservoir to be built – in February 1999 and June 1999.
In October 2005 the application was filed for the construction of a Nightclub of 2,000 square metres which accommodates around 4,000 people.
The MEPA directorate objected to this permit in March 2006, because it was outside the development zone; it was listed as a site of ecological and scientific importance, and also acknowledged by the European Union as a candidate for a Natura 2000 site and consequently protected as a conservation site. Besides this, the site is close to fields where there is organic agriculture.
The directorate objected to the permit also because there is already illegal development on site and therefore MEPA cannot issue a permit according to its own policies.
Despite all these reasons, the MEPA DCC Board (Division A) unexplainably issued a permit in November 2007 for the development of the Night Club that accommodates 4,000 people. In this way the site’s value will be ruined once and for all.
In December 2007, another application was filed to increase the footprint from 2,000 square metres to 4,000 square metres that would accommodate 8,000 people.
The board did not say, as it was obliged to do, what was the reason behind the directorate’s recommendation.
From the public declarations made by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando it appears that prima facie he also had information regarding the process, which to this date is not yet public.
The unexplainable way this permit has been issued despite the reasons and objections to it, as well as the public and influential position of the landowner, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, stink of improper and/or corrupt behaviour, and of criminal behaviour, in the process that led to the disregard of MEPA’s policies.
They also led to the MEPA Directorate’s recommendation being disregarded in contravention of the articles under subtitle IV of heading III of the Criminal Code, in particular articles 115, 119, 121A, 125, 133, and article 16 of the Planning and Development Act.
This evidence requires a serious investigation of the whole process that led to the issuing of the mentioned permit with the aim of ascertaining who could be responsible of irregular and criminal acts.