Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1152248
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 7 AUGUST 2019 3 NEWS JAMES DEBONO A shuttered petrol station op- posite the Corradino Correc- tional Facility is set to host a Burger King drive-through res- taurant. The drive-through facil- ity will be accessed and exited along Valletta Road with the enclosed restaurant being built on a floorspace of 360 sq.m. The proposal does not envi- sion the provision of any on- site parking. When asked about the impact on existing parking spaces the developers claimed that their target customers are MCAST students and shoppers of the newly refurbished Pjazza A. de Paule. Moreover, they claimed that many of their employees are "teenagers or young adults, who may not hold a valid driv- ing license" and that similar restaurants, by the same fran- chise make use of a transport service for employees. The PA's planning directorate and the PA's transport unit accept- ed this justification. The case officer still con- cluded that the development will require 14 parking spaces, which will be compensated for through a payment of €92,000 to the PA's Urban Improve- ments Fund for the locality. The PA's Design Advisory Committee had originally ex- pressed concern about the ex- tremely tall signage pillar, which was considered out of scale with the proportions of the rest of the building and not fitting in an Urban Conserva- tion Area. But following some revisions the latest designs was found ac- ceptable. Burger King to open outlet opposite jail The proposed Burger King drive-through does not envision the provision of any on-site parking CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Last month, MaltaToday reported that an attempt by Malta to have UN sanctions placed on the two men had hit a snag after Russia sought more details about the peti- tion at the eleventh hour. The technical hold, as it is referred to, requested more information about the sanctions from the Mal- tese government, a request which it acceded to instantly. Darren Debono submitted an in- junction last week, with a first hear- ing scheduled to take place today. Gordon Debono's was filed on the 18 July, and asked the court to pro- hibit Malta from applying any sanc- tions. He argued that no request for sanctions should be made to the UN Security Council given that he had not been informed that he was being investigated by the police or any other government entity. He insisted that the only proceed- ings against him were taking place in Italy, where it had been declared that the evidence against him was circumstantial. The request for an injunction was dropped yesterday, after a repre- sentative of the Sanctions Moni- toring Board - which falls under the Foreign Affairs ministry but is independent of government – sub- mitted a declaration signed by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Af- fairs Minister, stating that Malta would not be pursuing any action against the accused both locally and abroad. This week's court decision does not however preclude any further action at UN level by the Maltese, or any other interested government seeking sanctions against actors suspected of fuel smuggling. The two men were named as being at the centre of a €30 million fuel smuggling ring that included Liby- an militias and the Italian Mafia. A high-level source had told Mal- taToday that Malta received mes- sages of support from other coun- tries who are seeking to stem the bunkering and traffic of smuggled fuel on the high seas. In comments to MaltaToday last week, Abela said that the request for sanctions to be applied may have been the result of "recent" information received by the Sanc- tions Monitoring. He said that Malta would support every action taken to impose UN sanctions. Speaking on current affairs pro- gramme Xtra last month, the Unit- ed States' Charge d'Affaires in Mal- ta Mark Schapiro. "These guys are known gangsters and known smugglers. What just happened at the United Nations is that Russia made a decision to side with known gangsters and smug- glers against Malta," he said. "That's not ok, that should not be acceptable, and Malta has every right to be frustrated and disgusted by this." Gordon Debono (centre) with Darren Debono (left) and Fahmi Bin Khalifa, are suspected of masterminding a fuel smuggling ring involving Libya, Malta and Italy Darren Debono submitted injunction last week THE court has upheld an injunction filed by woman who claims to have lost her win- ning lotto ticket, in which she asked the courts to prohibit Maltco from donating her winnings. The €820,000 Lotto Quaterno+ jackpot was won on 18 May by a ticket bought from Qawra, but on 5 June, the operator issued a press release, explaining that the winnings had not yet been claimed. It said that if the holder of the lucky ticket did not come forward by 17 July, the win- nings would be donated to charity. In a decree on Monday, the court said that it would be better if Maltco did not donate money at this stage, and upheld the request. In her request to the court, the woman ex- plained that she had been trying her luck by playing the same numbers for the last nine months. She said she would alwys take her old tickets to a Qawra point of sale to have them scanned and replaced with new tick- ets. She said that it was shortly after she was discharged from hospital some time later that she realised she had misplaced the winning ticket, which she said, had been inadvertently thrown away with the "old batch of tickets". She insisted that she had indeed claimed the winning, first informally, then by means of a judicial letter dated 20 June 2019. This, she said, was followed by a court case which was filed on 8 July 2019. Additionally, she said that she had also successfully obtained a warrant of descrip- tion in order to retrieve IT data held by Maltco, which she said would strengthen her case. The injunction was filed following media reports that Maltco intended to donate the winnings. Court stops Maltco donating €820,000 in winnings from unclaimed ticket