This article has been published online by the Magyar Nemzet on July 7, 2021.
The Maltese politician in charge of issuing the newest resolution against Hungary in the European Parliament was sentenced to two years in jail for the distribution of pornographic content; the politician was later suspended for two years. Cyrus Engerer, a Socialist member of the Maltese Labour Party, was found guilty in court in 2014
for the premeditated act of circulating pornographic recordings on the internet of his former romantic partner with the intent of humiliating him.
– According to The Malta Independent’s report at the time. After the homosexual couple’s relationship ended in December of 2009, a few days later, Marvic Camilleri’s colleagues began receiving compromising images of Camilleri. The victim informed the police, suspecting that Cyrus Engerer was behind the crime, as he wanted to take revenge for their breakup.
The court also found that Engerer had threatened Camilleri: if Camilleri insisted on going to court, Engerer would release even more compromising information about him.
Cyrus Engerer managed to obtain these pornographic materials by sneaking into Camilleri’s flat (he had a key to the front door), and downloading the obscene photos and videos in which Engerer himself was not featured. He also copied the email addresses of Camilleri’s boss and colleagues before leaving the apartment and erased any evidence of his visit.
“Cyrus Engerer’s real crime was stealing private photographs from his victim’s computer after entering his home without permission, then using those photographs to cause him harm in the eyes of his employer and his colleagues, hoping that he would lose his job or at the very least their respect. If you cannot understand what a serious crime that is, then you should question your values.”
This is how Daphne Caruana Galizia, Maltese journalist, commented on the case in 2014.
The European Parliament’s left-liberal majority is preparing to adopt a resolution against Hungary concerning the anti-pedophilia laws. The pending EP resolution that will be presented by Cyrus Engerer, which our editors managed to access, reads “The European Parliament condemns in the strongest possible terms the Law adopted by the Hungarian Parliament, which constitutes a clear breach of the EU’s values, principles and law.” The Socialist MEP calls on the European Commission to not approve the COVID recovery fund for Hungary and any projects financed by the EU budget scheduled for the 2021-2027 period until it is proven that the funds do not contribute to any violation of fundamental human rights.
Four members of Fidesz rejected the accusations from Brussels over the child protection bill in a joint video. Balázs Hidvéghi said: the law was solely created for one purpose, to preserve the inalienable right of parents to educate their own children about sexual orientation. Every other conjecture about the bill is a lie.
While the state of the Hungarian, Polish, or Slovenian press is constantly on the agenda in the EU institutions (all three countries have conservative parties at the helm), criticisms of Malta and Slovakia have not yet been perpetuated over the assassination of the aforementioned Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak.
“If there is an infringement procedure against Hungary, we should initiate the same against Malta. If there is no procedure against Malta, there should not be one against Hungary either”
– Antonio Tajani, the former President of the EP, told Magyar Nemzet last year.
The Maltese investigative journalist reporting on corruption cases was murdered in October 2017 with a hidden car bomb. Caruana Galizia had uncovered a number of cases related to organized crime such as corruption and money laundering, which have put several high-ranking Maltese politicians and government officials in uncomfortable situations. During the investigation into the murder, a number of key politicians in Malta’s left-wing government, including the then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat himself, came to the attention of the authorities. The scandal led to the resignation of the government last January. (We wrote about this case earlier here).
Hypocritical critics. As we recently reported, another protagonist in the rule of law procedures against Hungary and Poland, the Belgian Didier Reynders, the current European Commissioner for Law Enforcement, has had some suspicious affairs in the past. “With his past, he should not be able to serve as Justice Commissioner, he should not lecture other countries, and I don’t think he should represent Belgium in the European Commission,” Philippe Engels, investigative journalist, told Magyar Nemzet regarding Didier Reynders. Engels is also author of The Reynders Clan, a work revealing corrupt cases which was nominated as the year’s best political book in Belgium.
