Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1433519
5 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 1 DECEMBER 2021 Operational Programme I – European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020 "Fostering a competitive and sustainable economy to meet our challenges" Advert part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund Co-financing rate: Public Eligible (80% European Union; 20% Natio nal Funds) ANNOUNCEMENT – 1st December 2021 Business Enhance ERDF Grant Schemes Last cut-off date for Call 1 e-Commerce Grant Scheme Announcement of Call 2 e-Commerce Grant Scheme Operational Programme I – Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 Fostering a competitive and sustainable economy to meet our challenges The Measures and Support Division within the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) designated by the Managing Authority for Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 as the Intermediate Body responsible for administering aid schemes for enterprises under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2014–2020, would like to announce the following: • Call 1 e-Commerce Grant Scheme Last cut-off date – noon of 31 December 2021 • Launch of Call 2 e-Commerce Grant Scheme Priority Axis 2 – 'Consolidating investment within the ICT sector' This scheme shall be administered through an open rolling call system and shall introduce a Simplified Cost Option for implementation of Operations under Call 2. Next cut-off dates are set at noon of: Friday, 14 January 2022 and Monday, 31 January 2022; Friday, 11 February 2022 and Monday, 28 February 2022; Friday, 18 March 2022 and Wednesday, 30 March 2022. The cut-off dates are also published on the Business Enhance website https://businessenhance.gov.mt and may be accessed from https://businessenhance.gov.mt/ContentPage.aspx?tE0CdQZCR0IVU2+UdJooPWlzUtrTxHHq Information Sessions on Call 2 e-Commerce Grant Scheme will be held online on 15 and 16 December 2021. There will be two information sessions, one at 10.00 hours and another at 14.30 hours, on each of the identified dates. Interested participants are requested to register online from https://businessenhance.gov.mt/InformationSession.aspx?tE0CdQZCR0Li0GkE2DsSBHECcQCAFUuL Further information on these calls including the Guidance Notes and the Guidelines for Implementation may be obtained from https://businessenhance.gov.mt or by contacting the Measures and Support Division on msd.eufunds@gov.mt or 2295 7110. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Borg was arraigned last week and is accused of sending poi- son-pen letters to the private residences of Opposition MPs Beppe Fenech Adami, Jason Az- zopardi and Ryan Callus, Repub- blika president Robert Aquilina, as well as government critic Prof. Kevin Cassar. Prosecuting inspectors Kevin Pulis and Kurt Farrugia also ac- cused Borg of threatening and insulting Aquilina and his broth- er, PN MP Karol Aquilina. In ad- dition, Borg stands charged with harassing and threatening Karol Aquilina and causing Robert Aq- uilina to fear violence, threatening MPs during the course of their duties, harassing Prof. Cassar and his wife as well as causing them to fear violence. "Shortly after 2014 I started to receive regular anonymous letters with a distinctive calligraphy on the envelopes, both at home and at parliament," Azzopardi told Magistrate Astrid May Grima. "It was a standing joke with my col- leagues. 'Għandi Santa oħra' we'd say." Azzopardi said the letters would arrive at regular three-month in- tervals and were never typewrit- ten. The address on the envelope would be handwritten, he added. The MP said he had been in pub- lic life for a long time and was used to being insulted but said he had never encountered such clearly researched vitriol. "My partner would also receive rude and insulting letters about her and her parents, showing that he knew about her parents' busi- ness in Valletta, showing he knew where I was." He suggested that political prop- aganda had influenced the ac- cused. "Above all, there were a lot of words that reflected the lies that I am used to hearing on a particu- lar political party station," Azzo- pardi said. "I don't know this person from Adam, but it was evident that his writing that he had absorbed the propaganda from the Labour me- dia stations and online trolls. The amount of lies, repeated in these letters, was staggering." The abuse had started in 2014 and continued unabated for seven years, until recently. The Magistrate asked Azzopardi to specify whether there had been particular threats directed at him. "If I say there was a threat to blow me up, shoot me and so on, there weren't. The effect of the content was to let me know that someone was following me and knows where I live. I felt threat- ened, harassed. It was a textbook definition of a course of conduct. Although nothing expressis ver- bis, there was so much venom and cruelty, hatred…that someone would take so much of their time to write them disturbed me." Azzopardi's partner Flavia Borg Bonaci had received three such letters at her home, insulting her, her parents and siblings, and showing that the writer knew their movements, Azzopardi said. Although he had convinced her to throw two of them away, she had kept a third, which was handed to the police. "She was very psychologically disturbed by it and very much afraid," Azzo- pardi said, adding that she didn't want to leave her house for a time, knowing she was being followed, such was the climate of fear the letters had created. "Criticism is one thing, but a per- son going the extra mile to inflict the maximum amount of psycho- logical damage, is something I have never seen in my public life." "The letters [received by Borg Bonaci] are the same and criticise the fact that I am the lawyer for the Caruana Galizia family and assist Repubblika and civil society. Particularly after October 2017, when [Caruana Galizia] was mur- dered, I definitely remember there were words of hatred," Azzopardi recalled. More abuse followed af- ter he had criticised Konrad Mizzi and Joseph Muscat, said the MP. Cross examination was reserved by the defence. Inspector Kevin Pulis, prose- cuting, exhibited a copy of the audio-visual statements released by the accused to the police on 23 and 24 November. "They were taken after all his legal rights were given to him and he had refused to be assisted by a lawyer while the police took them," said the inspec- tor. Defence lawyer Henry Anton- cich asked the inspector wheth- er as a state of fact, the accused had not been assisted during his statements. "Yes, he had waived that right. He was told four or five times that he had a right to be accompanied by a lawyer of his choosing, but refused." Borg had cooperated with the police, added the inspector. Defence lawyer Joseph Calleja insisted that all the evidence had been "completely preserved" and accused the prosecution of want- ing the accused to remain in cus- tody until the case was decided. "There are mechanisms to enforce bail conditions," he said, stating that "the other side is objecting more for a punitive reason, to see him in prison." The court, after hearing the sub- missions on bail, refused the re- quest as a substantial number of civilian witnesses are yet to testify in this case. The case will continue in De- cember with the testimony of Repubblika president Robert Aq- uilina. MP recounts seven-year campaign of anonymous poison-pen letters Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami was also threatened and insulted by Joseph Borg