Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1472486
6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 6 JULY 2022 NEWS NEWS MATTHEW AGIUS A court has been told that the At- torney General "forced" the police to arraign Pilatus Bank official Claude Anne Sant Fournier while, at the same time, withholding the majority of the evidence collected during the magisterial inquiry into Pilatus Bank from the police. This emerged in court on Tues- day morning after court-appointed expert Martin Bajada testified to having handed scans of the physi- cal evidence - some 200 full boxes of documents, on a pen drive to the magisterial inquiry, which had concluded over two years ago. The Attorney General at the time "did not want to use the scanned documents from Pilatus," and in- sisted on the hard copies, he said. "Every room was given a number, and cabinets were given sub-num- bers," Bajada explained from the witness stand. "Every document taken was listed in inventory and scanned," Bajada said. "So I have a room full of files for nothing?" asked the magistrate. The files were to be kept for posterity and for reference in case of any disputes about the scans, she explained. Magistrate Donatella Frendo Di- mech appointed Bajada to exhibit a digital copy of the files together with the site plan for Pilatus bank. Bajada was also ordered to make a copy and transcript of the testi- mony of a witness who had told the inquiring magistrate about having made handwritten notes of a meet- ing the witness had with Ali Sadr, after the court expert informed the court of the existence of this evi- dence. Cross-examined by lawyer Ste- fano Filletti, Bajada explained that during the scanning process, he would receive updated scans every night. He had exhibited these in the inquiry, he said. Filletti dictated a joint note with lawyer Kathleen Grima, protesting against the fact that all the doc- umentation relating to the bank had been scanned and inserted in the acts of the inquiry which, at the moment of Sant Fournier's arrest, had already been in the prosecu- tion's hands. As the law stands, once a person is arrested, he or she has a right to the disclosure of all the evidence against him or her. "As soon as the obligation of disclosure on the prosecution was triggered, al- though these documents were in their possession and easily com- municable to the defence on a USB flash drive, and in spite of the de- fence's requests for full disclosure, the prosecution knowingly chose not to give this data to the defence, as they were obliged to do." Neither was the defence given a copy of the report drawn up by Duffen Phelps, the company which was engaged to scan the bank doc- uments, he said. This was not only a breach of the criminal code, Filletti said, but also seriously prejudiced the defence at the investigation stage. The de- fence lawyers said they were re- serving the right to take further le- gal action after they received their copies of the documents in these proceedings. Prosecutor Marthese Grech from the Office of the Attorney General argued that the AG could not in- terfere with the police investiga- tion, but this argument was swiftly shut down by the defence lawyers, who warned the AG "not to play games." "So the AG gives instructions to prosecute, has all the evidence in hand, forces the police to arraign people within 48hrs, and then the police tell us that they had prac- tically no evidence?" said Filletti. "The AG held all of the documents and had ordered the police to press charges. When we asked for disclo- sure we were given four sheets of paper which was all the police had been given...this is an abuse. All the documentation is to be handed to the police," said the lawyer, accus- ing the State of "trying to find a way around the rule of disclosure," by pointing at legal amendments which split prosecution responsi- bilities between the police and the AG. Police Inspector Pauline Bonello, who took over the police investi- gation after the resignation of her predecessor, told the court that she had been only given redacted doc- uments for use during Sant Fourni- er's interrogation. "The defence is saying that the AG kept the police in the dark and ordered them to prosecute any- way. This is a serious accusation," said the magistrate. "I hope you have a basis for it." Filletti asked the inspector to take the witness stand to confirm this on oath. An argument broke out between the defence and AG law- yers as prosecutor Ramon Bonnett Sladden attempted to say some- thing to the inspector while she was walking up to the stand. After the oath was administered, Filletti asked the inspector wheth- er she would confirm that she had never handed any pen drive containing the evidence to Sant Fournier before her interrogation. Inspector Bonello confirmed that she had not, going on to explain that "this is because I didn't have one either. We just had the report from Duff and Phelps with parts redacted…the substance, the con- clusions drawn from their analy- sis." A lawyer appointed to represent the defunct bank, asked the wit- ness whether the bank itself had been given any documentation. "I don't have a recollection of having given them anything," she said. Prosecutor Marthese Grech pro- tested that she hadn't even been present for the interrogation, add- ing that the law was clear in saying that the duty of disclosure lies with the police. The magistrate replied by saying that the AG must know what evi- dence it had given the police. "Let us be honest here, that which you didn't give them, they can never know. Let's not beat around the bush. In this courtroom, I do not like to hear people defending the indefensible." The case will continue later this month. Prosecutors Marthese Grech and Ramon Bonett Sladden appeared for the office of the Attorney Gen- eral. Police inspectors Claire Borg and Pauline Bonello are prosecut- ing. Lawyer Stefano Filletti appeared as defence counsel. Attorney General accused of withholding evidence despite 'forcing' police to arraign Pilatus official Repubblika files protest against AG for refusing to charge Pilatus Bank top brass MATTHEW AGIUS RULE of Law advocacy NGO Repubblika has filed a judicial letter against the Attorney General accusing the State prosecutor of per- sistently refusing to charge a number of high-ranking individuals recommended for prosecution in the con- clusions of the magisterial inquiry into Pilatus Bank. Repubblika said this re- fusal was unreasonable and showed bad faith on the part of the AG. "The defendant's decision, in effect, not to charge or prosecute…as they had been ordered by the inquiring magistrate in March 2021 is exactly the opposite to a 'reasonable' decision," reads the judicial letter, signed by lawyer Ja- son Azzopardi. Repubblika's judicial letter states that Malta's courts had had established that "decisions by a public authority are unreasonable if they are manifestly un- just; if they disclosed bad faith; if they could find no justification in the minds of reasonable men", adding that this definition applied to the AG's decision not to prosecute, after receiving a 500,000 page report from a magisterial inquiry which cost the taxpayer €7.5 mil- lion. "The defendant made her decision in 2021. She de- cided to obey (in part), that which she had been ordered to do by the inquiring mag- istrate only with regards to Pilatus Bank as a company and [the bank's Head of Legal Affairs and Money Laundering Reporting Of- ficer] Claude-Anne Sant Fournier." Even then, the NGO points out, the bank and its Head of Legal Affairs have exclusively been charged with money laundering, and not other criminal charges which had also been ordered by the inquir- ing magistrate. The magistrate's orders for the issuing of Interna- tional Arrest Warrants had also been ignored by the AG, it said. "She [Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg] decided to completely disregard/ defy, ignore and show con- tempt towards that which the inquiring magistrate had ordered…" said the NGO, stressing that the law obliged the AG to file charges and that the crimes in question were punish- able by imprisonment for a maximum of almost 20 years. The NGO rued what it described as the "irrepara- ble harm inflicted on Mal- ta's international reputa- tion." Repubblika formally re- quested the re-opening of the Egrant inquiry, which had been concluded over 15 months ago, in 2021, Attorney General accused of persistently refusing to charge a number of high-ranking individuals recommended for prosecution in the conclusions of the magisterial inquiry into Pilatus Bank