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07.05.2020 2 NEWS THE legal team for the man accused of masterminding the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia has recruited a lawyer formerly in the employ of the Attorney General. Constitutional proceedings were filed by Yorgen Fenech against the Superin- tendent of Public Health and the State Advocate and will continue later this month, with a sitting held today to thrash out a roadmap for future hear- ings. Fenech's defence team, made up of lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran, Marion Camilleri and Charles Mercie- ca, declared they only had one witness – the registrar of the criminal court, who would testify before Mr Justice Law- rence Mintoff in the next sitting. e presence of Mercieca on the de- fence team, merely 24 hours after re- signing from the office of the Attorney General, raised the ire of some former colleagues. Sources say the young lawyer, son of the former Labour MP Franco Mercie- ca, is paying his leave. e Criminal Code provides that ad- vocates who would have acted on behalf of one party, and then change over in the same lawsuit, can only do so with the consent of the first party, under pain of penalties. Lawyers for Fenech, who in separate proceedings, is charged with master- minding the murder of journalist Daph- ne Caruana Galizia, are arguing that the closure of the courts had caused a breach of his human rights. e courts were closed at the behest of the Super- intendent of Public Health on March 16, by virtue of legal notice 65 of 2020. is legal notice applies to all courts and tribunals based in the Valletta court building and their respective registries. A judge has already dismissed an ap- plication by Yorgen Fenech to have his detention declared unlawful in the light of legal notices declaring the indefinite suspension of court hearings. Madam Justice Edwina Grima heard the Attorney General argue that the le- gal notice as published did not render the arrest illegal, with the defence coun- ter-arguing that it was the way the law was applied that was wrong, not the law itself. In lengthy submissions, lawyer Gi- anluca Caruana Curran told the judge that he felt the arrest of his client was now illegal as Fenech had no date where he could expect the arrest to end. Proceedings filed by Yorgen Fenech against the Superintendent of Public Health to continue ATLAS Insurance has appointed Matthew von Brockdorff as Managing Director and Chief Execu- tive Officer with effect from April 2020. Having been Deputy Managing Director for the past 15 years, he takes over the position of Man- aging Director and CEO from Michael Gatt, who held the position for the same period. Von Brockdorff, 50, is a fellow of the Chartered In- surance Institute and has worked in the insurance sector for over 33 years. In his previous role he was also responsible for claims, information systems and property management as well as spear-heading the Customer Strategy project. Matthew is a keen promoter and active participant in the Atlas well- ness programme, as fitness and wellness are a top priority in his free time. Von Brockdorff is also a director of Atlas Hold- ings Ltd, Atlas Healthcare Insurance Agency Ltd, Eagle Star Malta Ltd. and Jesmond Mizzi Financial Advisors Ltd. He is a past president of the Malta Insurance Association and of the Rotary Club La Valette Malta, a board member of JAYE Malta and a member of the Executive Board of Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti. Atlas Insurance PCC Limited appoints new managing director and CEO Matthew von Brockdorff KURT SANSONE TOURISM growth over the past few years was also reflected in the doubling of holiday homes regis- tered with the Malta Tourism Au- thority, figures released in parlia- ment show. e MTA had licenced 3,992 short-let properties or holiday premises by the end of April, al- most double the number registered in 2013. e figures were presented in parliament by Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli in response to a question by Nationalist MP Ivan Bartolo. Bartolo asked for the number of registrations of Airbnb proper- ties, however it transpires that the MTA does not collate the informa- tion according to individual online platforms but has an overarching licencing system for short-let or holiday premises. e figures tabled in parliament show yearly increases in the num- ber of MTA licenced private prop- erties for tourism purposes. However, according to tourism operators, the official figures for these private rentals are believed to be far below the actual number of properties advertised on platforms like Airbnb. Last summer, the MTA was in talks with online platforms to have them advertise only those proper- ties officially licenced by the au- thority. However, while agreement was reached with Booking.com, talks were hitting a brick wall with Airbnb. Holiday property registrations doubled in seven years ere are almost 4,000 short- let or holiday premises registered with the Malta Tourism Authority, information tabled in parliament shows Yorgen Fenech

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