Yana Mintoff

Who is Yana Mintoff?

Yana Mintoff is a political activist, economist and educator. Mintoff was born on 21 August 1951, the daughter of the former Prime Minister of Malta, Dom Mintoff and Moyra De Vere Bentinck, by whom she is descended from both Dutch and British nobility.

In 1968, at the age of 17, Mintoff travelled to Czechoslovakia on her own, outraged by the Soviet occupation of that country and its harsh repression. She worked at Olomouc as a youth volunteer and opposed the Soviet military presence.

Between 1973 and 1974, while working as a teacher in Greece, she participated in the student protests against the military Junta that had taken power. She was amongst the students who were attacked by the army outside the Athens Polytechnic. Many students were killed and she was shot at three times before managing to escape.

In 1974 she contributed to the Granada television documentary series World in Action. The subject was a scandal involving British architect John Poulson and the building of a "white elephant" hospital in Gozo. Her research into the bribery and corruption of local officials led the trail to the British Home Secretary Reginald Maudling. He resigned after this documentary was broadcast.