Here is the translation: dated November 13, 2019

ROME - Last night, sent by an anonymous account (IAM_JOMI) connected to the protonmail.com server, an online encrypted e-mail service founded in 2013 in Switzerland at CERN, they were sent to Repubblica (to the mailbox of the name of who he writes), to Corriere della Sera and the AdnKronos news agency, two MP4 audio files, lasting respectively 6 minutes and 50 seconds, in which a man, who speaks in English with a marked Maltese accent, claims to be Joseph Mifsud, the professor who is not a professor, Valletta's "Zatat" at the center of the Russiagate affair, officially disappeared since November 2017, after a last interview with Repubblica (to which the audio refers).

In the audio, whose recording date is indicated by the speaker on 11 November, the self-styled Mifsud says he is "separated for months from family and friends" and denies having ever worked for foreign countries or intelligence. He defines himself as a simple "networker", a man of relations, "of Catholic faith and bridge builder", whose job is to strive and foster networks "for pure academic reasons" and for the "exclusive benefit of young students" of the academic institutions where collaborated in the United Kingdom and Italy (Link University of Rome nrd.). He concedes that if, over time, he should have come into contact with men of foreign services, this has happened in his "complete unawareness". He adds that "he was recently informed of the accusations made against Link that he played a role" in Russiagate and "categorically denies it". Then spreading in a heartfelt defense of the university whose founder, Vincenzo Scotti, has also recently returned to call him a charlatan. Finally, a passage on his disappearance. "My friends, whom I continue to consider as such - says the man who qualifies as Mifsud - advised me, when the story exploded, to keep a low profile and reflect on the events. And that's what I did, trying to keep me mentally alive. " Then the leave: "It is extremely important that I be given the opportunity to return to live. It is extremely important that someone, somewhere, allows me to breathe again."

Interviewed by the Adn Kronos, Link Univeristy recognized man's voice in audio as Mifsud's ("He is 100 per cent", said the founder of the university Scotti, his general manager Pasquale Russo and Ms. Vanna Fadini, Gem administrator, Link management company). In contrast, Mifsud's Swiss and German lawyer Stephan Roh, principal and source of the Russiagate counter-narrative campaign behind the new American investigation by Attorney General William Barr and prosecutor John Durham, said the recording "an obvious fake". For the tone of the voice ("too loud"), the accent ("Italian"), the content ("I expected an indication for his lawyers or that he would come back to our office again. So far, what we I read is nothing specific, except how good the Link is ").

It is a fact that in the e-mail received from Repubblica at 9:45 pm yesterday evening from the protected account "IAM_JOMI" (identical the reception time to Corriere della Sera) there is a curious error in the indication of the object ("Form Joseph Mifsud" , instead of "from Joseph Mifsud") and that, even if we want to attribute it to haste or to a banal typing error (a "fish", as they say in typographical jargon), they are caught listening to the audio of the uncertainties in the use and in the pronunciation of English at least singular for a man who has been traveling around universities in half of Europe for fifteen years.

It is equally certain that the absolutely neutral content of the audio (the Maltese is called out of everything and is credited as a man overwhelmed by an unusual fate of which he is unaware and naive victim), the choice to send it to multiple recipients at different times ( the Ad Kronos received it at 1:53 am today, four hours after Repubblica and Corriere della Sera) in the successful attempt (the Ad Kronos released the audio and its transcription in the afternoon today), to force or at least multiply the possibilities of its diffusion without any certain verification of its originality and reliability, signal the sender's haste. Whoever it is, even if it was Mifsud. And this in order to further ripple and confuse already very turbid waters. Where there are many actors - certainly the Russian and US intelligence - there are many allusions, and the stakes are very high, as indeed "Repubblica" has documented in recent weeks. Even in our home, where our Services continue to be pursued by the accusation, repeatedly denied and periodically credited by Mifsud's lawyer, not only of having been complicit with the English and Russian intelligence of a conspiracy against Donald's election campaign Trump in 2016, but to have protected and continue to protect the Maltese in his escape.

For these reasons, due to the impossibility of technically and professionally verifying, in a few hours and with reasonable certainty, not only the originality of the audio, but also the absence of manipulations - above all that now widespread of deepfake, intelligence technique articiale that allows you to build a counterfeit audio or video from scratch using original images and sounds - not to mention the identity of its sender (covered by the protonmail encryption system), Repubblica, yesterday night, and today it has decided not to publish the audio in question. The work of the next few days will help us to better understand not only its authenticity or not, but also and above all to better define its context. So who, why and for what purpose is he maneuvering in these hours, perhaps betting on the fact that the editors of the newspapers are letter boxes or newsletters to mariners.

"Fatemi tornare a vivere" Is that italian for “i’m not suicidal” or “ i do not plan on shooting myself in the back of the head three times”

What would be the reason to make and distribute "fake" audio of Mifsud denying being a Russian agent or an Intelligence asset? Hmm.