34
The
OLIVE PRESS
Stroke of genius...how much do you know about this Spanish master? Take our quiz on page 12
GIBRALTAR
The Rock’s ONLY free local paper
FREE Vol. 8 Issue 205 www.theolivepress.es August 23rd - September 5th 2023
Went swimmingly AN intrepid team has just completed an epic swim across the Strait of Gibraltar. Brit James Stuart, 60, and friends Iñaki Guezuraga, Ricardo Arana and Ignacio Soto made the 15 km journey to Morocco - although it turned into 17 kilometres after being swept off course by currents - in five hours 40 minutes. The daring endeavour planted the group on Dalia beach in Morocco without a customs officer in sight. “We weren’t allowed to have a barbeque on the beach or go to a chiringuito or anything,” Stuart, who heads up the Califa hotel group, told the Olive Press. “We were illegal immigrants! We could not stay long. Just touch the sand, catch our breath a bit and then get on our boats and go back to Tarifa.” The swim raised funds for children with cancer in India through the Vicente Ferrer foundation.
Orcas targeted
ANIMAL rights activists are up in arms after a group of people onboard a yacht were caught on camera taking pot shots at killer whales. Footage taken by holidaymakers on a tourist boat off the coast of Tarifa shows them pleading with the shooters to stop. Spain’s animal rights political party PACMA has confirmed it will ask authorities to take legal action. PACMA said Orcas are classified as a vulnerable species by the Spanish Threatened Species Association (CEEA) and that therefore, any act aiming to kill, capture, chase or disturb them is forbidden.
ON CAMERA: Gunsmoke as Orcas targeted
Murky Rock
Minister confident in ‘festering’ Power down Chief McGrail inquiry amid suggestions of A SOCIAL media post by Paddy Power was deleted on Sunday after numerous complaints from Gibraltarians, including Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, who branded it ‘offensive’. In a post to X (formerly Twitter), the sports betting company joked about the winner of the recent women’s World Cup final between England and Spain claiming ownership of the territory. The post said: “Spain, let’s make it interesting, winner gets Gibraltar.” It attracted a large collection of complaints, including one from Picardo himself, who reposted it and showed his disdain. He said: “Hey, Paddy Power, it may sound funny to you. It’s offensive to the good people of Gibraltar that you should even joke about our homeland. “This is our home, no-one’s to claim and no-one’s to give.”
‘witness inducements’ GIBRALTAR’S Chief Minister Fabian Picardo is confident that the ‘festering’ McGrail Inquiry will find he ‘acted properly at all times’. The comments came in response to opposition concerns that an ongoing criminal investigation into the possibility of witness inducements has caused yet further delays into the much-prolonged case. The inquiry is investigating whether Picardo placed inappro-
By Walter Finch
priate pressure on former Police Commissioner Ian McGrail or interfered in police investigations before the latter’s shock retirement in June 2020. The inquiry has already been subject to numerous delays setting it back by over three years, including Covid, a March 2023 data leak and ‘logistical problems’ in finding an appropriate judge. The latest hold up shrouds yet more mystery on the troubled inquiry, being chaired by former High Court judge Sir Charles Peter Lawford Openshaw.
Bizarre
nal ter natio In & K All U ems TV syst Sound CCTV - n & Visio r net 4G Inte & ic t p Fiber O
952 763 840 635 400 099 info@theskydoctor.com www.theskydoctor.com
CONFIDENT: Fabian Picardo
“The issue of possible witness inducements has itself been bubbling under since the rather bizarre sequence of events earlier this year when the Chief Minister said he had seen evidence of criminal allegations against Mr McGrail,” the Gibraltar Social Democrats said in a statement. “It was swiftly followed by the Commissioner of Police denying having seen such evidence a day later and the fact that it emerged subsequently that letters of assurance to 14 police officers had been signed
INQUIRY: Former Police Commissioner Ian McGrail
by the Chief Minister when it was unnecessary to do so.” They then called for the inquiry to go ahead ‘as soon as possible’ as a matter of public interest. The government dismissed GSD complaints about the numerous delays and reminded them that it ‘convened the McGrail Inquiry as soon as it was possible to do so given the problems that the pandemic had caused.’ The Chief Minister said: “The final
Tel: 952 147 834
See pages 5 & 14
TM
IN CHARGE: Sir Charles Openshaw
hearings of the Inquiry will, unfortunately, now take longer than anyone would wish, but that will not alter the outcome that I am confident will entirely vindicate my position and the position of His Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar as a whole in respect of all aspects of this matter.” It was in June 2020 when the former Commissioner of Royal Gibraltar Police claimed he was forced from his job amid ‘improper pressure at the highest level of government’. McGrail announced he was retiring as Commissioner of Police after serving just two years of a four-year term without revealing his reasons behind the move at the time.
Questions
The decision to retire early after 36 years with the RGP, provoked fierce speculation and questions in parliament with McGrail himself calling for the matter to be properly investigated, and an inquiry was set up at the request of Chief Minister Fabian Picardo. In a shock twist, McGrail was arrested for sexual assault in April 2023, but later cleared of all charges.