Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1147486
NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 24 JULY 2019 2 MATTHEW AGIUS FORMER Sliema mayor Nikki Dimech has had his acquittal on bribery charges confirmed on ap- peal. Dimech had been forced to resign his position as mayor after he was accused of demanding a bribe from the Sliema council's former contracts manager Stephen Buhagiar, who claimed that the former mayor had asked for money in return for a contract of services he had secured with the council. The contract was assigned for a trial period of six months in September 2009, on condition that it could be terminated if Buhagiar's service was deemed unsatisfactory. This is in fact what happened and the council had terminated the contract by a vote of eight to one in March 2010. Buhagiar then promptly filed a police report claiming that he had been over- looked because he had not handed over the bribe to the then-mayor. In an interview with MaltaToday he had made a number of allegations about his arrest, which he repeated before the Court of Magistrates. The judge quoted from this story at length in her 74-page judgment. "At 9:45am, he was told that if he did not fully corroborate what he was saying, 'I will be dragged in front of all the press to court... I told him that this as not fair and that I wanted to have a lawyer present. I was given a phone and I tried to phone my lawyer but he was abroad. When I asked to call another lawyer, the police did not let me." "Dimech claims the police inspector told him to consider his political career 'already over' and 'perhaps salvage my professional business'" noted the court. "He also says he was told that if he didn't admit to Buhagiar's allegation, 'he would make a show of me to the press. I kept on telling him that Bu- hagiar's statement was not true but he would not accept this. This mental torture continued until 12:58pm." These were amongst a number of other allega- tions which were published in other newspapers. The court said it was not of the opinion that these allegations fall within the parameters of the crime with which he had been charged. "Al- though it agrees with the Attorney General that what the accused said in the two interviews could have been intended to attack, destroy or sully the reputation of the prosecutor, that which was said cannot be considered as insults or threats." For this reason, the court rejected the appeal and confirmed the judgment at first instance. Lawyers Mark Vassallo and Edward Gatt were Dimech's defence counsel. Nikki Dimech bribery acquittal confirmed on appeal Former Sliema Mayor Nikki Dimech DAVID HUDSON BORIS Johnson has won the Tory leadership race and is set to become Britain's new Prime Minister. It was between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt to become the new Conservative leader on Tuesday as the result of the contest to succeed Theresa May was announced. Jeremy Hunt obtained 46,656 votes while Boris Johnson ob- tained 92,153. The outcome of the ballot of about 160,000 Tory members was revealed just before mid- day in London. The turnout was that of 87.4%. Johnson will officially be an- nounced as the new prime minister on Wednesday, re- placing Theresa May. May took to Twitter to congratu- late Johnson urging him to de- liver a Brexit that works for the whole UK and to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of government. In his winning speech, John- son promised he would do so and he thanked May for her "service to Britain in difficult times". Johnson, a former mayor of London, was seen as the clear favourite although a number of senior figures have said they will not serve under him. May, who is standing down after a revolt by Conservative MPs over her Brexit policy, will chair her last cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning. She will officially tender her resignation to the Queen on Wednesday afternoon after taking part in her final Prime Minister's Questions. Johnson will take office short- ly afterwards, following an au- dience at Buckingham Palace. United States President Don- ald Trump took to Twitter to congratulate Johnson on his new role, adding that "he will be great." Conservative members have been voting by post for the past two and a half weeks. It is the first time they will have selected a serving prime min- ister. Since he made the final two candidates last month, John- son - who led the Leave cam- paign in the 2016 Brexit refer- endum - had been regarded as the clear frontrunner. Former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News Johnson was "best placed" to unite the party as he had won the backing of more than 50% of MPs in the first stage of the race. The month-long leadership campaign has been dominated by arguments over Brexit. Hunt, the foreign secretary, had said he is better placed to secure a negotiated exit and would be prepared to ask for more time beyond the Hallow- een deadline to finalise it. Johnson has said he is deter- mined to take the UK out of the EU on 31 October, if nec- essary without a deal. He has said all ministers must "recon- cile" themselves to this. The cabinet is therefore ex- pected to go through a re- shuffle when Johnson enters Downing Street on Wednes- day. Boris Johnson is Britain's new prime minister Boris Johnson will take office this afternoon, following an audience at Buckingham Palace YANNICK PACE A crowdfunding campaign looking to collected money for a legal challenge to the Central Link Project has raised €20,000 in less than 24 hours. Yesterday, a group of 14 NGOs said they would be filing an appeal with the En- vironment and Planning Re- view Tribunal, announcing today that their target had already been reached. "After the Planning Author- ity shocking approved the Central Link Project, resi- dents from various localities together with 14 NGOs will be initiating legal action to challenge this appalling de- cision," the NGOs said in a statement on Monday. The NGOs said they turned to the public because despite the fact that they would be covering a part of the proce- dural and professional fees, they could not cover all the expenses. "In view of the ex- orbitant costs involved, this appeal will only be possible thanks to the public's finan- cial support." 24 hours later, the NGOs have said that they have col- lected the €20,000 required for the legal challenge. Hailing the result as a re- cord, the NGOs said that they would now be discussing the next steps with their legal team with a view to mount- ing the necessary legal chal- lenges. They said that dona- tions would continue to be received from those willing to contribute to the cause. Crowdfunding campaign to challenge Central Link Project collects €20,000 in one day