Lorry Sant

Lorry Sant (26 December 1937 – 5 October 1995) was a Maltese activist, trade unionist and Malta Labour Party politician who held a number of ministerial offices between 1971 and 1987.

In the 1980s, he was involved in incidents of political violence, and he has been held responsible for violating the human rights of his employees.

After he wrote an anti-clerical editorial which commented on a February 1960 pastoral letter by Archbishop Mikiel Gonzi, Sant was interdicted by the Catholic Church on 9 April 1960.

[1] Lorry Sant had a very rough leadership approach which resulted in a number of controversies[4] including human rights violations.

A dispute arose over the selection of football coaches, culminating in Tagliaferro being arrested for unauthorised possession of government stationery, although he was later released without any charges.

[7] The MFA had been allowed to use the national stadium at Ta' Qali after its completion, but in the early 1980s Sant prevented them from using it until they paid an annual rent of Lm 10,000.

On one occasion he reportedly broke the glasses of then-Nationalist MP Josie Muscat in parliament and then beat him up and locked him in a bathroom.

[10] A court testimony later established that Cauchi attended at least two stormy meetings before the December election in 1981 where corrupt land deals were being discussed.

[10] In 1986, Sant and Wistin Abela interrupted and almost assaulted Nationalist leader Eddie Fenech Adami in parliament while the latter was delivering a speech which condemned the murder of Raymond Caruana and the police's subsequent frameup of Peter Paul Busuttil.

[11] In 1989, Lorry Sant was charged with corruption in court, but the case was abandoned after magistrate Carol Peralta ruled that although there was enough evidence to issue a bill of indictment, the crimes were time-barred.

Commemorative Maltese inscription on a building in Valletta which translates to "This stone was laid down by the Minister Lorry Sant to commemorate that this building was built by the Labour government, 28 April 1973"