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15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 DECEMBER 2020 NEWS Christmas specials • Crime the St Luke's, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals, was led entire- ly by Konrad Mizzi's ministry. The deal is now the subject of a criminal inquiry into Minister Edward Scicluna, former min- ister Chris Cardona and former minister Konrad Mizzi. Malta consul in Shanghai ar- raigned over €500,000 cash trove at home A political appointee to Mal- ta's Shanghai consulate was re- manded in custody in August after a police raid on his home discovered a stash of €500,000 in cash. Aldo Cutajar, brother of the Maltese civil service chief Mario Cutajar, was charged with money laundering. Immigration Migrant riots September was a month of unrest at both Safi and Marsa detention centres, with riots aplenty. Arrests followed. Private security guard to be indicted after Safi migrant riot shooting The court ruled that there was sufficient evidence to indict a pri- vate security guard for attempted murder after he shot at an escap- ing migrant during a riot at the Safi detention centre in Septem- ber. No bail for seven migrants ac- cused of being ringleaders in Marsa centre riot Seven migrants were remand- ed in custody after pleading not guilty to involvement in a riot at the Marsa centre, during which a group of around 40 migrants re- volted. 52 asylum seekers take govern- ment to court over delayed res- cue and pushback A group of 52 would-be asylum seekers who had been pushed back to a grim fate in Libya by the Maltese authorities on the fishing vessel Dar al Salaam filed a court application in November, demanding to be allowed to make their asylum applications and seeking damages. Press freedom Allo, Allo! skit: Occupy activist loses Torca 'Nazi actress' libel Freedom of speech took a knock through a judgment defending freedom of speech this year. Top- sy-turvy logic was used to dismiss a case filed by actress Pia Zammit against GWU organ it-Torca after it did a hatchet job on Zammit us- ing a picture of her in a faux-Nazi costume she wore for a perfor- mance of "'Allo 'Allo." The court said the publication was a value judgment and ob- served that the publications at is- sue "could not be seen as anything but expressions of opinion about the facts in the photograph." In a reaction to the judgment, Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association (MEIA) said "If courts of law are unable to differentiate between the performer and the characters they play, then today we have established a dangerous and serious precedent that threat- ens the work of performing artists and freedom of creative expres- sion." Neville Gafa acquitted of threat- ening Italian journalist in migra- tion tweet Former OPM functionary Nev- ille Gafa emerged unscathed in a criminal case filed on the com- plaint of Italian journalist Nello Scavo over a tweet he published in June, in the aftermath of Sca- vo's reports on Malta's attempted pushbacks of migrants rescued at sea. Scavo had said the tweet "Stop your dirty business. If not we will be stopping you," was intimidato- ry. The court however noted that Scavo had not filed a police report in Italy at the time, something the magistrate found strange from a journalist under police protection. The journalist had also failed to explain how he felt threatened, observed the court. Former chief justice to head probe into lawyer's offer of cash to Times journalist But perhaps the most disturbing of all press-freedom related sto- ries this year relates to an alleged attempt made by Yorgen Fenech's lawyers at bribing an investigative journalist. Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Cur- ran and Charles Mercieca sailed into a storm of controversy in No- vember after attempting to hand over a number of €500 notes to journalist Ivan Martin. The two lawyers are part of a legal team representing Yorgen Fenech, who is accused of conspiring to murder journalist Daphne Caruana Gali- zia in 2017. The matter is now subject to a police investigation and a probe by the Committee for the Admin- istration of Justice. And that's it for our roundup of the biggest court stories of 2020. Here's to an eventful 2021! Owen Schembri arriving in court Gordon Debono, pictured right, had been arrested in 2017 by Italian police on connections to an international fuel smuggling operation Left: Jelle Rijpma gets 30 years jail for gruesome murder of girlfriend in 2018