Malta, former government official accused of threatening journalist

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Following sufficient evidence, on Thursday, the Police in Malta arraigned Neville Gafà,former official at the Office of the Prime Minister for threatening investigative Italian journalist Sebastiano Scavo.
The Police said in court that on 5th August 2020 they received a complaint from Italian Journalist Sebastiano Scavo regarding a comment made by Gafà on Twitter following a post made by the humanitarian NGO Alarm Phone.
Gafà used his Twitter account to tell Scavo “stop your dirty business. If not, we will be stopping you.”
The Italian journalist has been following ground-breaking stories on pushbacks into Libyan concentration camps on migrants from all over the African continent.
During the interrogation, Gafà admitted that he posted the comment on twitter while he was at his residence in Mellie?a. Gafà insited that he had no intention to pose a threat or harm Scavo but it was a political comment as he wanted to make pressure on the issue of migration.
In court, the Italian journalist said that he still feels threatened by the accused even after he tried to clarify the matter with Gafà. Scavo recalls how, on Twitter, he had asked him what he meant when he wrote “we will stop you” and who is “we”. A question to which the accused had not replied.
The Italian journalist also said that since 2019 he has been under the protection of Italian Police and this year this protection has again been confirmed following the threats posed by Neville Gafà. Sebastiano Scavo has presented in court the documents which prove he is under protection.
The case will continue on 15th of October.
(ITALPRESS).


Source: medNews