Magistrate Antoine Agius Bonnici to lead inquiry into alleged fraudulent ID cards
Magistrate Antoine Agius Bonnici will be leading an inquiry into the alleged fraudulent issuing of identity and residence cards by the state agency Identita.Former PN MP Jason Azzopardi, who was the one who requested the magisterial inquiry on the al
Magistrate Antoine Agius Bonnici will be leading an inquiry into the alleged fraudulent issuing of identity and residence cards by the state agency Identita.
Former PN MP Jason Azzopardi, who was the one who requested the magisterial inquiry on the alleged racket – which Azzopardi says has seen over 18,000 identity cards fraudulently issued, announced the news on his social media page.
Magistrate Agius Bonnici is one of the newer magistrates on the bench: he was sworn into the post in January 2024, having previously served as a senior lawyer within the Office of the Attorney General.
Azzopardi noted that from today the magisterial inquiry is formally and officially open, and encouraged anybody with documentation, information, correspondence and anything which may help the magistrate in his investigation to come forward to the magistrate.
He added that those who come forward will be helping the magistrate gather evidence about “corruption, fraud, document falsification, organised crime, conspiracy, money laundering, identity theft, and theft of addresses from within/by Identity Malta.”
Azzopardi assured people that people can come forward with guaranteed confidentiality. “You don’t need to tell anybody that you are going before the magistrate.”
He said that this can be done through a court application written by a lawyer or a note written by a lawyer and presented in the inquiry’s acts. There are no court expenses involved. People can also ask to testify before the magistrate under oath – always in full confidentiality – or inform him in writing through an application or note.
“I have given you the tools. Now it’s up to you to use them wisely. Don’t hold back. I myself will be asking to appear before him so to inform him of many things which I cannot say in public about the biggest corruption scandal in a government entity that we’ve ever seen,” he wrote.
Azzopardi has alleged that that foreigners were being given Maltese ID cards through the use of falsified documents, including falsified marriage certificates and falsified certificates from the Malta Business Registry which were being doctored by Identita officials.
Azzopardi had written that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa had known about the situation for “at least two and a half years, in fact, longer than that”, but had still not requested for an inquiry to be opened. “The reason is very simple,” Azzopardi continued, “if you investigate the racket in a forensic manner as you are supposed to, you would get to Castille, you would get to the Office of the Prime Minister.”
There have been a myriad of recent reports of members of the public receiving mail at their addresses which was not addressed to them, but which was addressed to foreigners who do not and never did live there – leading to worries that people’s addresses are being fraudulently used.
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