A new book has been launched in Nadur, Gozo about the attempt by two businessmen to bribe Gozitan MP Anglu Camilleri, il-Bedeq, to bring down the Mintoff Government in 1973.

IL-BEDEQ: Riedu jixtruh biex iwaqqa’ l-gvern (They wanted to bribe him to overthrow the Government) was launched in front of the house where on the 31st of May 1973, Roger Camilleri and Ronnie Said approached il-Bedeq and offered him Lm120,000 (circa €1,800,000 in today’s money) to vote against the Labour Government which had a one seat majority in Parliament.

The author noted that they did not realise that Police Inspector John Piscopo and Police Sergeant Spiridione Gauci were hidden in an adjacent room and who overheard the attempt and subsequently arrested.

Francis Galea, the author of the book, said that the two businessmen could not be tried in Court because while the Law sent anyone who tried to bribe a football player to two years in prison, there was no penalty for anyone who tried to corrupt a Member of Parliament.

The Government had brought a Breach of Privilege Case in Parliament where the two businessmen were tried. They were found guilty and sentenced to a maximum sentence of two months in prison.

The book reproduces word for word the reactions of Government and Opposition members in Parliament who participated in five different sittings in the Bedeq debate between 4 and 13 June 1973.

The author also gives an historical background of the first months in office of the Mintoff government, which had closed down NATO Headquarters in Malta and prohibited US military vessels to enter Grand Harbour.

The author uncovers confidential reports contained in the Kissinger cables dating from 1973 to 1976 covering 1.7 million US diplomatic and intelligence reports, among which are political updates passed by Mario Felice, a Nationalist MP to the American Ambassador to Malta John Getz.

According to the author, on the 8th of June 1973, the Nationalist MP met the American Ambassador at the Embassy Valletta and discussed the Bedeq case. He tells the Ambassador that, “the Bedeq bribery attempt was very nearly successful”. Felice says he has done his utmost to ascertain whether any Nationalist MP might be involved but has so far come up with nothing.”

Francis Galea describes Il-Bedeq as “a soldier of steel.” Il-Bedeq had a large family, 16 children in all. “Not only did he refuse the bribe, but he informed the Police that later in the evening the accused would visit him at his Nadur home.” When years later his children joked with him and asked him why he had not accepted that ‘enormous amount of money,’ Il-Bedeq replied, “I was a steel soldier of steel in the storm,when the Maltese Church interdicted him in the 1960s, why shouldn’t I remain a steel soldier of steel in times of peace?”

IL-BEDEQ: Riedu jixtruh biex iwaqqa’ l-gvern is selling at €15.00 from local booksellers or online from www.skspublishers.com

Photos From top left; The accused: Roger Camilleri (left) and Ronnie Said; Book cover; Book’s author; and below right Investigators: Police Sergeant Spiridione Gauci (left) and Police Inspector John Piscopo.

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