Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1489031
15 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 DECEMBER 2022 Benefit of the doubt for police and Attorney General running on empty OK so, the year got off to a bad start for law enforcement, but it couldn't get any worse, right? Well…hold on to your hats, because 2022 was a year chock-full of mistakes, to use the kindest possible word, by prosecutors and the police. The collapse of case after case has taxed the public's faith and goodwill al- most to breaking point. The examples are many, so here's just a small selection: Extradition of alleged Maltese drug smug- gler still ongoing, 6 months after arrest Exhibit "A": The ongoing legal wrangle over an Italian extradition request for John Spiteri, wanted by Italy to face charges of smuggling drugs from Albania to Italy with the inten- tion of selling them in Italy and Malta for the Ndranghetà – a prominent mafia-type crime syndicate based in Calabria. A request for Spiteri's extradition to Catania was initially rejected in June, on the grounds that important documentation had not been exhibited by the prosecution. The Court of Criminal Appeal overturned that decision in August and ordered Spiteri's case be re-heard. He was immediately rear- rested, being released on bail after his lawyers took the case before the Court of Criminal Appeal. That appeal was rejected but Spiteri remains in Malta on bail, pending a decision on whether he would be subjected to inhu- man and degrading treatment in Italy. Wrong offence cited in charges gets Yorgen Fenech's lawyers off the hook Exhibit "B": Also in June, a court said it had no option but to acquit two of Yorgen Fenech's lawyers of attempting to bribe a Times of Malta journalist, ruling that the At- torney General had indicated the wrong of- fence in the charges. Wrong regulation cited in charges gets arms dealer off the hook Exhibit "C": In October, Maltese arms deal- er James Fenech was acquitted of breaching EU sanctions after being charged under the wrong Council Regulation. Inexplicably, Fenech was not also charged with breaching UN sanctions, despite a UN Security Council panel finding his explanation lacking in cred- ibility and declaring him and his company in technical non-compliance with UN sanctions against Libya. The AG did not file an appeal. Pilatus bank Exhibit "D": In several sittings in the mean- dering money laundering case against Pilatus Bank, the presiding magistrate has repeated- ly criticised the prosecution for its poor han- dling of the case, on one occasion accusing them of trying to "hoodwink the court," hav- ing submitting the nth list of witnesses they wished to summons from abroad, some of whom the court had just refused, moments before. NGO, magistrate go to war over who should preside Pilatus Bank challenge proceedings ANTI-CORRUPTION NGO Repub- blika is accusing Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg of ignoring the rec- ommendations of a magisterial inquiry, by having issued a nolle prosequi - an order not to prosecute- Pilatus Bank owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, its op- erations supervisor Luis Rivera, the bank's director Ghambari Hamidreza and bank official Mehmet Tasli. In challenge proceedings filed last June, the NGO asked the court to compel the Police Commissioner to prosecute a number of Pilatus bank officials singled out by the Pilatus Bank inquiry over breaches of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, making false declarations to a public authority and participating in a crim- inal a s s o - cia- t i o n with t h e intention to commit an offence which was punishable with more than four years imprisonment. But the FIAU had closed its inves- tigation into Pilatus Bank in 2016, less than a month after its chairman sent an email to former OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, complaining about the financial crime investiga- tion unit's "wrong allegations." Challenge proceedings are normally heard by Magistrate Nadine Lia, but the NGO asked that she recuse her- self in this case, due to a conflict of interest. The grounds, in a nutshell, are that the magistrate's father-in- law, lawyer Pawlu Lia, was former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's per- sonal lawyer. Muscat had also en- gaged Pawlu Lia to set the terms for the 2017 Egrant inquiry, which had been prompted by Daphne Caru- ana Galizia's claim that Muscat's wife, Michelle, owned a secret Pan- ama-based company, Egrant. Before her appointment as magistrate, Na- dine Lia had also addressed a Labour Party rally defending Muscat's han- dling of Egrant in the run up to the 2017 general election. The magistrate, however, refused to step aside, leading Repubblica to file constitutional proceedings, argu- ing that the magistrate's refusal con- stitutes a breach of its right to a fair hearing before an impartial tribunal. The challenge proceedings are cur- rently suspended pending a decision in the Constitutional case, which continues in January. hands full this year would be a crass understatement, with the unit having re- ceived 1480 reports in the first 10 months of 2022 ac- cording to official figures. • This year's most seri- ous such case is that of Bernice Cassar, a mother of two, who was shot dead by her husband as she drove to work in Novem- ber. Roderick Cassar now stands charged with wilful femicide, an offence intro- duced into the Crim- inal Code this year as a result of amend- ments sparked by the murder of Paulina Dembska in Sliema on New Year's Day. • Dembska's self-con- fessed killer, Ab- ner Aquilina, stands charged with mur- der. His lawyers are building a defence based on insanity. • The month of April also saw two separate arraignments of men accused of threat- ening to shoot their wives and children. • In June, the plight of an American woman on holiday in Malta made international headlines, after doc- tors refused to ter- minate her unviable pregnancy, for le- gal reasons, because the foetus still had a heartbeat, despite all amniotic fluid being lost and a detached placenta. The wom- an was evacuated to Spain where the preg- nancy was terminat- ed. She later filed a Constitutional case against Malta, claim- ing her life and health had been put at risk. The case is still on- going, but the debate it ignited could lead to a change in the law. An amendment to the criminal code, permitting abortion when the woman's life and health are at stake passed to the committee stage in parliament in late De- cember. Left: Bernice Cassar was murdered on 22 November. The prime suspect is her husband Roderick. Below: Paulina Dembska was murdered on New Year's day Nadline Lia