Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1071614
NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 16 JANUARY 2019 2 MATTHEW AGIUS A man from Qrendi has denied domes- tic violence charges after he was ar- raigned in court and accused of punch- ing his wife. Inspector Roderick Attard arraigned the man, who cannot be named on the orders of the court, before magistrate Gabriella Vella yesterday morning. The wife of the accused had filed a re- port with Appogg claiming to have been punched. The next day, the daughter of the accused had reported that the father was being abusive towards her too. So- cial workers informed the police and the man was arrested. The accused, a 47-year-old undertak- er, pleaded not guilty to the charges. Medical certificates were presented to the court, documenting the woman's injuries. She was placed under a protec- tion order which prohibits the accused from approaching her. The accused was granted bail against a deposit of €500 and a personal guaran- tee of €3,000. He was ordered to move to a different address, but was allowed to return to his house to feed his horse twice a day when his wife would not be at home. Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia were defence counsel. Lawyer Lara Dimitriyevic appeared as parte civile for the wife. The court ordered a ban on the pub- lication of name of the accused in all media. Qrendi man denies punching wife A 65-year-old man has died after falling down a shaft of around two storeys at the carpark at Daniel's shopping Complex in Ħamrun early on Monday morning. The incident occurred at 8am in Triq il Kbira San Guzepp. An ambulance was called to assist the victim, but he was unfortunately certified dead on the spot. Magistrate Doreen Clarke has been ap- pointed to lead a magisterial inquiry. Man dies after falling down Hamrun shaft JAMES DEBONO AN advert purporting to be selling 17.5 acres of land in Comino for €100 million for the de- velopment of bungalows has been disowned by property agents Engel and Volkers on whose website it appeared. The advert went viral after it was widely shared on the social media. Contacted by MaltaToday, EV blamed the advert on a trainee secretary who was updat- ing the website and had mistakenly included the advert, basing herself on old notes con- sisting of "made up details drafted for inter- nal practice". Speaking to MaltaToday, director Benjamin Tabone Grech insisted that the advert had not been approved neither by the vendors nor by the directors of Engel and Volkers. "All the details in the advert are incorrect, and Com- ino is not for sale. This is all the result of a human error. We regret the mistake." Comino is a Natura 2000 where no residen- tial development is allowed by existing poli- cies. For the past decades, the owners of the Comino holiday complex have been seeking to redevelop the hotel site. An application for the extension of the Comino Hotel was pre- sented 15 years ago and suspended by MEPA in 2003 when the architect failed to submit the required documents within the legal timeframe. The owners are now currently in the process of formulating "a development plan for the area", according to a manage- ment plan for Comino's Natura 2000 sites. Historically, the island was leased for 150 years to Comino Development Co. Ltd, a company owned by John Gaul, at the annual rent of £100. The Borg Olivier government negotiated a new deal to reduce Gaul's ownership to the area presently occupied by the Comino Ho- tel, at San Niklaw Bay and the bungalows at Santa Marija Bay. In the late 1960s, BICAL bank owner Cecil Pace acquired Comino Hotel, but when the banker was arrested over misappropriation of funds and his bank licence suspended, the hotel was indiscriminately returned to John Gaul. In 2007, entrepreneurs Joseph Gasan and George Fenech bought a share in Kemmuna Ltd, which runs the Comino Hotel, by acquir- ing a stake in Ropes Services Ltd in Novem- ber 2007, a company registered in the Isle of Man. The local plan for Comino accords the island the status of Special Area of Conser- vation and nature reserve, and only allows developers to "upgrade" the existing tourist complex and hotel if it is "compatible with the sensitivity of the surrounding context". Comino is not for sale, property agent says after incorrect ad goes viral DAVID HUDSON DEPUTY Prime Minister Chris Fearne "condemned" Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi once again yesterday over his in- volvement in the Vitals Global Healthcare deal, Adrian Delia said yesterday. The Nationalist Party leader has initiated court proceed- ings in which he is asking the court to annul an agreement signed between the govern- ment and Vitals Global Health- care (VGH) through which the company was granted a con- cession to run three of Malta's public hospitals. The concession was even- tually transferred to Steward Health Care, after VGH failed to live up to the targets laid out in the agreement. Addressing a press confer- ence on yesterday's court pro- ceedings and the publication of further revelations about the deal, Delia again insisted that the deal was set up to fail. According to a share pur- chase agreement published by The Shift News, the owners of Vitals – Ram Tumuluri and Shaukat Ali Abdul Ghafoor – funded the takeover of medi- cal equipment company Tech- noline when it was acquired by its former sales and marketing manager, Ivan Vassallo, using a €5 million loan from one of VGH's owners. In comments to the press yes- terday morning, Fearne said both he and Steward Health Care did not agree with this setup. "After he sent the deal to be investigated by the National Audit Office, he has now an- nounced publicly said that the contract that had to do with Technoline will be cancelled," Delia said. The Opposition leader said Fearne's comments were a con- demnation of fellow Cabinet minister Konard Mizzi, who had negotiated the concession agreement covering the three hospitals. Asked whether he still be- lieved the hospitals should still be nationalised, given that Steward Health Care appeared to be in a better position to meet the targets laid out in the contract, the PN leader in- sisted the concession had been illicitly transferred from one company to the other, adding that whether or not they were nationalised was not the issue. Konrad Mizzi 'condemned' by Deputy PM over Vitals deal, Adrian Delia says