Raphael Vassallo
Former Labour leader Alfred Sant has confirmed that the alleged hacking of his government email account has been ongoing for two years, and that contrary to claims made by Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt, his request for a clarification from the Malta IT & Training Services (MITTS) last year had been ignored.
“I expected MITTS to inform me about how and to what extent, if any, my e-correspondence, past and present, has been and is affected by what has been going on,” Sant said, referring to complaints he had made about his government email account in September 2007.
On that occasion, MITTS advised him to change his password, but offered no explanation for the access difficulties.
This week, Claudio Grech the government appointed chairman of MITTS and who also holds the post of CEO at Smart City, wrote to Alfred Sant claiming that he did not have information that any MITTS employee had accessed the email account of a member of parliament.
Grech said that he could not divulge details about the investigations and told Sant to put the same questions to the Commissioner of Police directly.
Claudio Grech’s letter came a day after Sant reiterated his claim, made in Parliament on Wednesday, that government was hiding behind ongoing police investigations in order not to reveal how much it knew about this case, which he claims constitutes a breach of fundamental human rights in his regard, and also that of his correspondents.

“If investigations are proceeding, these too would make my e-correspondence liable to further monitoring by new sets of ‘eyes’. I should know about the extent of investigation by whoever is conducting the latter on my past/present email, as well as my correspondents. This in order to enable me to take all relevant steps to protect my rights and interests, as well as those of people who sought to correspond with me.
“There is nothing out of the world with such an approach,” Sant added. “It is applied the world over. Claiming that it does not need be done in the present case, because it would prejudice police investigations, is unacceptable.”
The allegations centre on three employees of the Malta Information Technology & Training Services (MITTS), currently under police investigation for having accessed leaked email passwords and attempted (unsuccessfully) to hack into private bank accounts.
Senior Labour officials allege that among the email accounts accessed without authorisation were those belonging to then Labour leader Alfred Sant, former Foreign Minister George Vella, and current deputy leader for party affairs, Anglu Farrugia.
At the opening of Parliament last week, former Opposition leader Charles Mangion requested a debate on this issue to be heard with urgency. The motion was shot down by Speaker Louis Galea and House leader Tonio Borg, neither of whom could see the reason for such urgency.
Mangion later told MaltaToday that he “did not exclude a political motivation” behind this illegal breach of privacy.
Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt has meanwhile dismissed these allegations as a ‘pack of lies’, and told this newspaper that: “None of the Labour MPs mentioned complained of any intrusion. Anyone who is hacked would know as his email is changed.”
But in exclusive comments to MaltaToday, Alfred Sant contradicts this by reiterating the fact that he had informed the Clerk of the House of his suspicions in September last year, and demanding an explanation from the government and MITTS.
“I am not in the business of making allegations up in the air,” Sant replied when asked for a response to Austin Gatt’s dismissive comment. “What I have expected is a direct and personal clarification from MITTS regarding the allegations that have been made about my e-mails having been hacked during the past two years. If true, apart from the illegality of it, this would clearly impact on the integrity of my work and functions, past and present. My privacy, my rights, including those of a fundamental nature, and the associated rights and interests of my correspondents are equally on the line.”