The Labour Party has accused Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando of “persisting in lies”, referring to an internet post the disgraced MP submitted to The Times’ website on the Mistra disco project.
On Sunday, Pullicino Orlando denied having stated before the general election that he knew nothing of the project for the development of the discotheque on his land in Mistra.
In his post, Pullicino Orlando wrote: “I own a plot of land near the sea which has been rented out to others for some time now. Three years ago, these others applied for a permit to build an underground lavatory and an open air dance floor less than two metres high.’ This is a quote taken from a ‘Talking Point’ entitled ‘Street Corner Gossip’ which I wrote and the Times published on 1/3/08. I declared I knew about the application which the Labour Party attacked me with (which is simply a paved area and a stand less than two metres high with wooden flooring and with a capacity of a few hundred people-not thousands as claimed by Dr. Alfred Sant) before Alfred Sant held his famous press conference at Mistra after he had given me the slip in Gozo. How some people can persist in saying that I said I knew ‘absolutely nothing’ is beyond me.”
The MLP reiterated comments that Pullicino Orlando gave to the press on 1 March, just minutes after Labour leader Alfred Sant had revealed the facts concerning the Mistra case. The transcript includes Pullicino Orlando’s outright denial of his knowledge of the project.
“Seven weeks since the general election, Pullicino Orlando is trying to give the false and deceitful impression that he did not attempt to hide what he knew of the project on his own land in Mistra. On the contrary, the facts as they emerged throughout the electoral campaign was that Pullicino Orlando was the driver behind this development, as news reports emerged of his personally having made continuous pressure, even trough his presence in meetings, to secure the permit for the disco from MEPA.
“That Dr Pullicino knew everything about the project emerged from the contract for the lease of the land, signed on 17 January 2008, from which it was stipulated he would earn €1.9 million over a 15-year lease,” the MLP said.