Gibraltar Corruption

Is there still Rule of Law in Gibraltar? Is there corruption in the local police?

Are employees' Human Rights protected? Is there a mafia in Gibraltar?

How corrupt are the Courts in Gibraltar? Is Entain a bad employer?

Defamation, hate speech and protection of Chief Minister Picardo

In February 2021, the GSLP's party political weekly magazine published a defamatory article, which is in fact hate speech, referring to me as a foreigner to create negative sentiments towards me. The article asked several denigrating questions about me, trying to falsely create the impression that I was doing something wrong. The article was widely read and led to people acting aggressively towards me. It was rumoured that the article was written by Chief Minister Fabian Picardo. The criminal offence of defamation was reported by me to the Royal Gibraltar Police, who refused to investigate my complaint. The police claimed that it was a matter for the Supreme Court, where I wanted to start a case against the author. The Chief Justice, Anthony Dudley, blocked this by asking me to pay a £5,000 security before starting procedures. As I could not afford such a sum, which the Chief Justice was fully aware of because of his dealings with my court case against Entain, the Chief Justice de facto blocked my access to justice. I see this as another example where the police and judiciary work together to block anything that might go against Chief Minister Picardo and his cabal.

EYES WIDE SHUT by the Guardian
This community, and the electorate within it, is one of the most astute and clear minded in Europe. It will not be easily fooled by populist leaders.
In Gibraltar, the populism we see in other places is short lived. It sometimes appears in the form of a new leader. These days, it can arise from a post on popular social media sites like Facebook. In other instances it can arise from unsubstantiated gossip.
When it comes to elections, however, the electorate is not fooled by these movements. They analyse the political programme being put by those who stand for election. The elec-torate also looks at the character of the leaders of the political parties and the candidates. We as a community decide who we can trust, we look at track record and we make a col-lective decision as to who should run our countries affairs for the next four years.
For the past two elections the gap between the GSLP Liberals and their nearest rivals has been between 68% (2015) and 75% (2019). In the last election the GSLP Liberals had 52% of the vote, but their nearest rivals were the GSD with a low of 25% of the vote, and the balance taken by Together Gibraltar on 21%.
Now, as we see new groups emerge to loudly shout at the Government, it is important to see who is behind these groups.
What is clear is that Daniel Feetham, the least successful Gibraltarian party leader of all time, is clearly in the mix somewhere. As Fabian Picardo astutely pointed out in Parlia-ment this week, Feetham the Failure has become a Professional Protestor, supporting all the protests that may come against the Government - except for the Climate Change pro-tests he has never attended.
But who are the organisers? Who are the people who are telling us that they can do a bet-ter job than our elected GSLP leaders? In the same way as we analyse our leaders before we decide if we can trust them, should we not analyse who these new ring leaders are?
For example, who is Bart Van Thienen? Is he really just a guy from outside Gibraltar who volunteers to clean our foreshore at no fee? Where is he from, that he comes here and tells us that we need to change our leaders cos they won't give him a passport. What does Bart live off and does he satisfy the minimum income requirements that we force all long resi-dent individuals to comply with? Why should he be exempted from the rules on minimum income if he does not meet them?
What is the track record of John Goodman, the man behind a lot of the traffic posts on Faccbook? He is constantly stirring, but he was a police officer and things were no better in his time when it came to transport and traffic. What are his vendettas against some in the GHA, and what are his lesser known personal relationships?
And what of that other former copper, Clive Borrell, who now appears as if he were a saint vying to protect his flock. Who is he? What was his career in the police like? How did it end? Did he spend time abroad? Where does he live today? What are his convic-tions?
And what of that other background operator, Damian Carreras, who also appears to be involved in the social media strategy against the GSLP? Is he still connected to the Rus-sians who were behind failed tenders for LNG facilities here? Is that why he is so anti-GSLP and now trying turn people against the party in Government? And who is still his principal political ally in the GSD?
All these questions should answered by those who say our democratically elected leaders should not be trusted. Can they be?
Time to dig and decide. The Guardian will tell you more as soon as we can...

My letter to The New People editor is below this scan of the article:

My letter to the editor in reply to the defamatory article, which is in fact hate speech. I never received a reply from the editor. I brought the article to the attention of the Royal Gibraltar Police, but they refused to investigate, although defamation is a criminal offence. I tried to go to the Supreme Court but the Chief Justice asked me to pay a security of £5,000, which I could not afford. The author hiding under the alias "The Guardian" is, according to the information I was given, Fabian Picardo, the Chief Minister. If this were indeed to be the case, than it would indicate that he was protected both by the police and the Courts.

The New People
21 Bell Lane
Gibraltar
thenewpeople@gibtelecom.net
Gibraltar, 18th February 2021
Reference: libellous defamation

Dear editor, I write to you about a disturbing chain of events which started with your defamatory and libellous article mentioning my name in your newspaper in the edition of 16th July 2020. The false, wrong and misleading information in the article continues to be used to date by GSLP followers to attack me on social media and to try to make me look bad for the whole of Gibraltar. I continue to be approached in the street by aggressive people unknown to me who believe the contents of your article and throw verbal abuse at me for it. I genuinely fear that this situation might go out of hand one day and I will be physically attacked. The defamatory article in "The New People" continues to cause me trouble well over half a year after it was published. I have also filed a formal complaint with the RGP about this article. The complete article is attached to this letter.

Extracts from the article "Eyes wide shut" by an anonymous author under the alias "the Guardian":
But who are the organisers? ... Should we not analyse who these new ring leaders are? For example, who is Bart Van Thienen? Is he really just a guy from outside Gibraltar who volunteers to clean our Foreshore at no fee? Where is he from, that he comes here and and tells us that we need to change our leaders cos they won't give him a passport. What does Bart live off and does he satisfy the minimum income requirements that we force all long resident individuals to comply with? Why should he be exempted from the rules on minimum income if he does not meet them? A lot of information in this extract is false, misleading, suggestive, libellous and defamatory and I take offence with 7 points:

1/ ringleader
Cambridge English Dictionary: "the leader of a group of people who are doing something harmful or illegal"
Merriam-Webster Dictionary: "a leader of a ring of individuals engaged especially in improper or unlawful activities"
Macmillan English Dictionary: "a leader of a group of people who are doing something illegal or wrong"
Collins English Dictionary: "a person who leads others in any kind of unlawful or mischievous activity"
The choice of the word “ringleader” to describe my alleged position is entirely out of order. The dictionaries' definitions are clear that ringleader is a word with a negative perception and insinuating that I am involved in some illegal or improper activity. That definitely is not the case and has never been.
It is no secret that I am quite critical of the present Government, I am a well known environmental activist locally and I do strongly believe that this Government is not doing enough for our environment. It is my Constitutional right to have that opinion. There is nothing wrong or illegal in expressing one's opinion, even though Minister Cortes expressed unhappiness with my criticism. He even sent the police on me in a clear intimidation attempt, resulting in a formal apology letter to me from the Commissioner of Police. It has also been well documented that I am the victim of the Chief Minister's abuse of power by his refusal to deal with my application for British Citizenship over the last 5.5 years. The local Ombudsman has written a report about this and was very clear in his conclusion: maladministration. As you see, the GSLP Government has gone well out of its way to make me dislike them.
In no way am I a member, organiser or leader in any “populist organisation which is trying to fool the electorate”. I am a member of the GSD party but I am not, and have never been, an activist in any form for that political party. I am not a member of any other organisation in Gibraltar, with the exception of the Gibraltar Group of Professional Engineers. The GGPE is a professional body jointly sponsored by the Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Mechanical Engineers and Institution of Engineering & Technology in the UK and is not involved at all in any political activities.
In your article, I am the first person named as being an organiser or ringleader. This is highly suggestive that I am an important troublemaker. This is tainting my good standing in this community. It is a total lie and fabrication without any proof or evidence and with the malicious intent to damage my name.

2/ a guy from outside Gibraltar
I was born in Belgium but live for over ten years in Gibraltar and have always been fully registered as a resident with the CSRO. Before that I was a regular visitor to Gibraltar as a professional tour guide on the Costa del Sol and I have been Official Licensed Guide with the Gibraltar Tourist Board for almost seventeen years. As an EU citizen in Gibraltar I have identical rights to Gibraltarians and even Brexit will not change that very much. Pointing out that I am “a guy from outside Gibraltar” is a unnecessary racist, xenophobic and/or discriminatory remark based on my ancestry and place of birth. This is an uncalled for comment aimed at inciting hatred against a foreign resident in Gibraltar for the only reason that my well founded criticism on the Government's environmental and other failures is not appreciated by some members of the GSLP.

3/ volunteers to clean our Foreshore at no fee
To question if “I am really a volunteer” cleaning up Europa Foreshore for free is strongly and falsely suggesting that I am not. There have been countless articles in the local press about my voluntary work and I received a Gibraltar Heritage Trust Award and Gibraltar Independent Civil Society Award for doing it for free. Never have I been paid for my work although at times the Heritage Trust and Department of Environment paid for the materials. This was to cover costs, not as a payment for my work.
It is libellous and defamatory to claim that I somehow was not a volunteer working for free and there is clearly an intention to create doubts and misperceptions about my voluntary efforts to help make Gibraltar a better place for locals and tourists alike. If the present Government would have been more helpful with my voluntary work, then I would not have hesitated to praise the Government for it publicly. Unfortunately I only get sabotaged by the Government these days.

4/ Where is he from
In a very derogatory manner once again this is another attempt to create antipathy against my person for being a foreigner. I have always paid all tax and social security requested and I have never been convicted for any wrongdoing. As an EU citizen residing in Gibraltar I have the right to live here and Brexit will not change that. It is entirely unreasonable to bring my ancestry and place of birth to the attention of your readers in your article. Even if I had been the leader of some group, which I am not, it would have been entirely irrelevant that I was born in Belgium.
For the last four years I have been invited by the Governor to attend the Queen's Birthday Garden Party in The Convent. This shows that I am an exemplary citizen who is well respected for his voluntary contributions to Gibraltar's community. I applied for British citizenship over five years ago so there is no reason at all to create any doubts that my ancestry is somehow negative for the local community.

5/ he comes here and and tells us
There is no doubt that I was not born in Gibraltar. That does not exclude me from voicing an opinion, it is a right under our Constitution. Voicing an opinion that might be different to what some others think does not mean that I am telling people what they should do or not, that allegation is entirely false and misleading.
This mention in the article implicates that I am falsely trying to force people to accept my opinion. I have never been sued for slander, libel or defamation because when I publish an opinion I always researched the subject and published my opinion with the relevant evidence. That is something entirely different than “he comes here and tells us”, which is a description of an arrogant approach and an attempt to mislead people. The deliberate choice of words in the article once again is instigating animosity and aggression against my person. Unfortunately this has been successful and some people continue to react on the contents of your article, as I described in the first paragraph of this letter.

6/ What does Bart live off and does he satisfy the minimum income requirements
What I do live off is entirely my personal, private and confidential business and this suggestive question should never have been asked in an article in a newspaper.
Mentioning it in the context of your “ringleader” article, suggest that there is some serious problem with the source of my income, that there is something really suspicious re my finances. The answer to this question is that I have been self-employed or been employed by local companies. I also have some savings and now and then receive a gift of money from my parents as prepayment for my inheritance, this is done for (perfectly legal) tax reasons in Belgium. All this is fully documented and there is nothing illegal or strange with my income. The local Civil Status and Registration Office has all these data and never voiced any concerns over my financial situation. Therefore your mentioning of my financial background has no relevance at all for your article, apart of trying to put me in a bad light. Even more; there are no “minimum income requirements” for living in Gibraltar as the article claims. It is no secret that there are several homeless and penniless people living in Gibraltar, including locals and foreigners from inside and outside the EU. It is entirely spurious that the article connects my name to doubts about my income and alleged legal requirements that do not exist. The article is suggesting that I have financial problems or might be a burden on our society. I definitely am not in that situation and have never been. Your article makes it look as if there is some problem with my income and that the source of my money is somehow suspicious or illegal. None of this is the case.

7/ exempted from the rules on minimum income if he does not meet them
This is a clear referral to my “Application for Exemption”, the first step in the process to obtain British Citizenship. There are no “minimum income” rules for British passport applications as the article claims. Under the Gibraltar Constitution and Immigration, Asylum And Refugee Act, British Citizenship applications are dealt with by the Governor, at his absolute discretion. The “minimum income” statement in the article is entirely unfounded and false. My “Application for Exemption” has been accepted by the CSRO, was analysed by them and found to be complete and fulfilling all requirements. If there would indeed be some “minimum income” rules then I would have no problem to fulfil the criteria with a significant margin anyway. It is therefore libellous and defamatory to write that I do not fulfil a rule that does not exist and, if it existed, I would in any case meet the requirement.
In the theoretical case that there would be some “minimum income” rules and I would, again in theory, not fulfil the requirements then that would be private and confidential information. Publishing it in a newspaper would constitute a breach of Data Protection Laws and Regulations. It is clear that the only reason for mentioning “exempted from the rules on minimum income if he does not meet them” is to create the impression that there is something seriously wrong and suspicious about my income.
There are indeed some issues with my “Application for Exemption” and the mistakes and maladministration have been investigated and heavily condemned by the local Ombudsman in a formal report that was presented to Gibraltar's Parliament in June last year. His Excellency the Governor is also dealing with the issue. None of this is mentioned in the article which creates a very unbalanced way of presenting the actual situation. Where there is indeed a requirement to prove certain levels of income, is the Application for Permanent Residence as an EU Citizen in Gibraltar. In December last year, I was awarded this Permanent Residence Certificate, what proves that the “minimum income if he does not meet them” comment is incorrect in its entirety and highly likely was an intentional lie.

Effect of all these allegations and statements
There has undoubtedly been a whole series of false allegations, negative suggestions, misleading statements and misinformation in this article. The author's clear intent was defamation of my character, an obvious attempt to bring my good standing in the community down, harm my reputation of being a law abiding citizen bringing a positive and voluntary contribution to society and destroy my credibility. That the author wishes to remain anonymous and hides behind the alias “the Guardian” shows that the author knows that the content of the article is unacceptable and prone to complaints.
Newspapers that are linked to political parties, such as "The New People" which is entirely GSLP controlled, reach a huge audience, both party faithful and readers from other parties with an interest in local politics. Many other well known people and activists were mentioned in the controversial article so it was also widely spread and discussed on social media. It is highly likely that a majority of the population in Gibraltar has read the article or heard about its content. My formal complaint about the 16th July 2020 article in “The New People” should therefore be taken very seriously by the RGP. It is bad enough that people abuse Facebook for inappropriate comments, what makes it a thousand time worse is that in my case this happened in an official newspaper.

In the days following the publication of the article, it became clear that many people had read the article and a lot of people approached me over it, several with comments like “go back to your own country” and “we don't want people here who are chupando del sistema”. I therefore felt obliged to put a statement on Facebook a few days later debunking the lies and false allegations in the article. This has unfortunately not been enough to stop the flow of negativity and aggression. The false information from the article is still being taken over by GSLP activists and supporters till this very day, over half a year later. This results in insults in the streets and further mentions of the article's content in social media, for instance by Brian Jackson on 17th November 2020 in Gibraltar Politics with 11,200 members and Joelle Baglietto on 28th November 2020 on Keith Azopardi's Facebook page and before that on different Facebook groups.

There have also been more mentions of the article's libellous and defamatory statements in Facebook groups of which I am not a member so I cannot see the comments to take screenshots of them. The libel and defamation in your article are having an ongoing detrimental effect on my good name and reputation in Gibraltar. This damage has to be undone in its entirety.

The Gibraltar Defamation Act states under section 15.(1): “A person who maliciously publishes any defamatory libel, knowing the same to be false, is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for two years and to a fine.”

I wish to make clear immediately here that I am NOT after any financial compensation for the damages caused by the article. In case a Judge might award me any compensation, I will donate that money entirely to the charity organisation Dignity at Work Now so they can use it in their campaign against bullying at work. I do hope that we can reach a reasonable agreement though in which you take decisive action to repair and undo the damage.

The Gibraltar Defamation Act mentions such an option under section 24:
“(1) A person who has published words alleged to be defamatory of another person may, if he claims that the words were published by him innocently in relation to that other person, make an offer of amends under this section ; and in any such case–
(a) if the offer is accepted by the party aggrieved and is duly performed, no proceedings for libel or slander shall be taken or continued by that party against the person making the offer in respect of the publication in question (but without prejudice to any cause of action against any other person jointly responsible for that publication);
(2) An offer of amends under this section must be expressed to be made for the purposes of this section, and must be accompanied by an affidavit specifying the facts relied upon by the person making it to show that the words in question were published by him innocently in relation to the party aggrieved; and for the purposes of a defence under paragraph (b) of subsection (1) no evidence, other than evidence of facts specified in the affidavit, shall be admissible on behalf of that person to prove that the words were so published.”

I see myself as a very reasonable person and I am willing to come to an agreement as proposed under the Law. This includes the requirement that the article's author “the Guardian” provides the legally requested affidavit and the publication of an article in “The New People” correcting the false, libellous and defamatory content and that you make sure that it gets widely spread on social media. As already said, I am not after any financial compensation. I will stress here though that the detrimental effects of the article have convinced me to take this to Court without the most minimal doubt, should that be necessary.

I expect your detailed offer of amends by the end of next week, being Friday 26th February 2021 at the very latest.

Yours sincerely,

Bart Van Thienen

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