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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 12 OCTOBER 2022
NEWS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The judge ordered D'Amato to ap-
pear in court next month to testify
about the background and context
behind the request for international
and European Arrest Warrants that
she had filed before inquiring magis-
trate Ian Farrugia in February 2021.
The court ordered her to exhibit cop-
ies of the warrants.
The judge also ordered the inspector
to give the court a first-hand account
of the action taken by the FCID from
December 2020 to June 2022, follow-
ing the conclusion of the magisterial
inquiry into Pilatus Bank.
The judge also ordered that a copy
of the application and the resulting
decree ordering the inspector to at-
tend be handed to her in person.
Repubblika, through its lawyer Ja-
son Azzopardi, is alleging that AG
Victoria Buttigieg had issued what
is known as a nolle prosequi - an or-
der not to prosecute - vis a vis Pilatus
Bank owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad,
its operations supervisor Luis Rivera,
the bank's director Ghambari Ham-
idreza and bank supervisor Mehmet
Tasli.
Last July, Repubblika had filed affi-
davits in court, declaring that Tasli
had testified in October last year in a
separate case and was allowed to leave
the island, instead of being arrested
on the strength of international and
European Arrest Warrants issued
against him by the Maltese courts.
The Maltese nolle prosequi being
alleged, should not be confused with
a separate nolle prosequi issued in
Sadr's favour by a district attorney
in the USA, where he faced charges
of breaching international sanctions
on Iran. The US proceedings had no
connection to Malta.
Police inspector ordered to give account of FCID's
actions following Pilatus Bank inquiry conclusion
Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg
