Headlines

Smoke from near refinery fire spreads towards Gibraltar

I first spotted the billowing black smoke from my West View Park balcony at 3.30pm, said eyewitness Joe Brugada. Read more

Register of Electors 2019 made available to the Press after PANORAMA campaign

The latest register of electors was recently published and photographs of its cover allowed, but copies of the register itself were not made available to the Press. But the relevant law has now been changed following a campaign by PANORAMA to allow copies to be made available to the Press as a whole, if they require copies.  Read more

Police Cover-Up - After two RGP officers sentenced in Spanish Criminal Court

While a breakdown in trust between police and the public is by no means uniform across the community. Over a period of time and more recently, certain operational police activity has dominated headlines, like the current RGP illegal fishing enforcement policy in BGTW.

However, the main issue of this report has nothing to do with illegal fishing but how the police have repeatedly attempted, to mislead, ignore, confuse and in this case blatantly cover up their way out of answering repeated questions on an issue or incident that goes back 10 years.

The issue in question was a serious high profile incident of great public interest and political involvement. In fact, the matter concluded a number of months ago when two serving RGP officers were brought before a Spanish Criminal Courtroom to face charges. The case today whether the police like it or not is still of public interest as it was 10 years ago!

Information regarding the conclusion of the case has intentionally been kept under wraps it seems. Not withstanding and repeating the point about public and political interest, especially in an era, where international-cross border police cooperation appears to be dominating ‘operational policing decisions’.

RGP Officers Charged With Theft Related Charges

Panorama can exclusively confirm, that two serving RGP officers last year just before Christmas appeared with three other local men, in front of a Spanish criminal court charged with offences, crimes, where in UK or in local law would be classed as cases of dishonesty.

In fact, the two officers together with the others were charged with offences akin to theft, bordering a more serious charge of burglary. Involving an unlawful entry into a dwelling or private apartment in Spain where an unlawful search of the premises was conducted and a number of items illegally removed.

The outcome of the court proceedings took place before a ‘magistrate or juez del juzgado’.

In her sentencing summing up, the magistrate said that “Primarily the penalty for ‘search’ or ‘break-in’ ranges from six months to two years, and ‘theft’ which depends on the assessment of the theft; but in this case and due to circumstances not linked to the defendants but to the procedure and considering that the case is not of a major complexity, the Judge decided to reduce the penalty to “one and a half months imprisonment” for all the defendants including the two RGP officers, which the judge replaced by a monetary fine, (the latter was a legal translation from the official court document) Read more

German students briefed on Gibraltar

The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia today updated a group of University students from Germany on the political and constitutional development of Gibraltar.  Read more

Establishment of Gibraltar Maritime Academy

The Minister with responsibility for the Port, Maritime Affairs and the University, Gilbert Licudi, has announced the establishment of a Maritime Academy in Gibraltar which will be based at the University. As from September 2020, the University of Gibraltar will offer four new undergraduate maritime degrees.  Read more

Take cover, el sporting world is coming to our Gibraltar

Blimey, con el sporting ministron de Linares, he thinks que sportsmen from the whole wide world will be coming to Gibraltar to make use of our new equipment, as if the world did not have what we are going to have now.  Read more

BORIS JOHNSON: Gibraltar not for sale

Boris Johnson, who is poised to be Britain's next Prime Minister, has long been a fervent supporter of Gibraltar and its people - even in the days when he was Foreign Secretary, he would surge forward in defence of Gibraltar putting aside the diplomatic language that was probably expected of him.  Read more