‘Pilatus suspect allowed to leave Malta despite arrest warrant’: Repubblika
One of the men suspected of facilitating money-laundering at the now-defunct Pilatus Bank was allegedly allowed to enter and leave Malta while facing an arrest warrant.
In a press conference outside the law courts, Repubblika president Robert Aquilina said suspect Mehmet Tasli had even walked in and out of the court building last year unchallenged.
According to Aquilina, Tasli was summoned as a witness in October 2021 to testify about a request by the bank for a partial lifting of its freezing order, to be allowed to carry out certain payments.
“There were two Attorney General lawyers present that day. They cross-examined Tasli. They questioned him, then allowed him to walk out of the court building. He was allowed to leave Malta unchallenged,” Aquilina said.
A month earlier, both the bank and one of its former officials had been charged with money laundering. Court action had also been ordered against other top officials, including Tasli and former bank owner Ali Sadr, yet the police have yet to charge them.
'Justice turned into farce'
Aquilina accused both the police and Attorney General of failing to execute the arrest warrants signed by the magistrate who led the inquiry,...