MALTA SELLS CBI PASSPORTS TO HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATORS, GIVING THEM EU ACCESS

As if Malta's IIM (CBI) passport sales program, which has a long and sordid history of selling Citizenship passports to Russian, Iranian, and Syrian purchasers, as well as career transnational criminals, wasn't bad enough, the latest CBI scandal reveals that passports were sold to individuals who hawk spyware used to identify and persecute Opposition figures, investigative journalists, and any other individuals who pose a threat to authoritarian jurisdictions, and to forces in democratic states that seek to limit political freedom and Freedom of Speech. 

The valued Maltese CBI passport, which gives visa-free access to the EU member states, appears to have been used to market amoral spyware into prospective purchasers from outside the EU who are on purchasing campaigns within Western Europe. A number of these purveyors of surveillance platforms, which have been universally condemned for their ability to identify and target democratic proponents, have received Maltese CBI passports, notwithstanding that they were known tombe selling them to autocratic leaders in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Investigative reporters within Malta have long alleged that the country's ruling Labour Party (PL) employs these surveillance programs, which illegally intrude into the personal lives of Opposition leaders, whistleblowers, and individuals who make public corrupt activities of senior members of Malta's Cabinet, and their connection to the Maltese Mafia, a criminal organization linked to decades of political violence aimed at quelling democratic reform in the small island nation. Malta's weak judicial system, whose judges owe their positions to the government leaders who appointed them, are unable or unwilling to rein in these rampant violations of human rights.

Actions by the EU and EC, designed to legally terminate Malta's IIM program, has thus far been ineffective, as the processes necessary to accomplish this are lengthy and tied down by rules of procedure, but it is hoped that, eventually, the threats posed by the existence of Europe's sole remaining "anything goes" CBI passport scheme will be terminated with prejudice.