Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1492490
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 FEBRUARY 2023 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA THE minister for justice has re- fused to provide documentation requested in the House by Na- tionalist MP Ivan Castillo on an ongoing international arbitra- tion case launched by the own- ers of the shuttered private bank Pilatus. The Maltese government is being represented at the Inter- national Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) by lawyers from Alston & Bird in an arbitration claim brought by Alpene Ltd, the owners of the bank that was shut down by the financial regulator in the wake of the arrest in the Unit- ed States of CEO and owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad in 2018. He was later acquitted of Iran sanctions-busting charges. But Minister Jonathan Attard told Castillo in the House that the ICSID arbitration case was pending and that every detail on the case was confidential. "When the arbitration is com- plete, the ministry will endeav- our to give a full account of the information requested, as per- missible at law," Attard said. Attard said he would not re- lease to the public any of the documentation filed by either party in the case. The Maltese government's prosecutors are facing a chal- lenge in court brought against them by the anti-corruption NGO Repubblika, over the fail- ure to prosecute senior figures at Pilatus Bank over money laundering accusations. Attor- ney General Victoria Buttigieg and State Advocate Chris Sol- er asked the judge presiding over the case to hear the case behind closed doors so as not to violate the confidentiality of linked proceedings before the World Bank's ICSID. Alpene is owned by Ali Sa- dr Hasheminejad, and has been referred to in separate proceedings in the USA, as the "100% indirect owner" of Pila- tus bank. The Hong-Kong based com- pany is accusing Malta of un- fairly targeting the bank and using it as a scapegoat for Malta's FATF greylisting, with a view to expropriating it and claiming millions of US dollars in damages. ICSID, memorably de- scribed as "a private, global super court that empowers corporations to bend countries to their will," could have juris- diction over matters involving Chinese investments, such as Alpene which is registered in Hong Kong, and Malta due to the 2009 bilateral agreement between Malta and China. However, the agreement al- so imposes the clear condition that national legal remedies must be exhausted before the case is filed before ICSID. And there is no record of Pilatus bank having any appellate or Constitutional judgments for or against it in Malta, much less one connected to the issue at hand. NICOLE MEILAK MALTA'S courts have spent over €17 million on specialised experts over the span of two years, figures tabled in parlia- ment last week show. The information was tabled by justice minister Jonathan Attard in response to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Katya De Giovanni. According to the data, over €9.3 million was spent on court experts in 2021 alone, of which €47,000 was spent on psycholog- ical experts. In 2022, the court spent €8.1 million, of which €90,000 was expenditure on psy- chological experts. MaltaToday had previously reported on the expenditure on court experts, which reached €9.7 million in 2020. Of these, €6.5 million were spent on for- eign experts and €3.1 million on national experts. Expenditure on court experts in 2019 jumped up to €7.8 mil- lion from the €3.5 million in 2018. Spending on court experts was the lowest in 2014 during the last eight years at just €1.2 million. Experts appointed by court were paid a total of €1.4 million in 2013, €1.3 million in 2015 and €1.3 million in 2016. €2.5 million were spent in 2017. The Maltese parliament is cur- rently discussing a Bill to digit- ise the country's judicial system, focusing on provisions to allow for documents by the court to be transferred electronically to the Attorney General. This Bill is one of many at- tempts to help speed up a judi- cial process that is often held in contempt for interminable de- lays, in a bid to make the system more efficient. There have been several judgments from high- er courts stating that people's rights are being violated because the judicial process in Malta takes so long. Indeed, there are around 1,700 open magisterial cases. Apart from civil and criminal cases, one magistrate in particular has 170 pending cases. Malta received considerable funds through the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility to digitise the judicial process with the final aim of approaching a "paperless" system. There are now plans to extend the law courts building to ac- commodate four new halls and 25 offices. The plans were ini- tially announced by former jus- tice minister Edward Zammit Lewis, whose ministry allocated €5 million to the extension. Ten- ders for construction are now in place to extend the courthouse. Another Bill being discussed is that to harmonise the work currently carried out separately by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) and inquiring magistrates, when it comes to investigating serious accidents and fatalities in the workplace. Currently, the OHSA has the authority to investigate all mat- ters related to occupational safe- ty, including death or injury, but is not involved in magisterial in- quiries, which are appointed for every major workplace incident. Indeed, there are 87 pending inquiries dating back to 2015. With the new Bill, the govern- ment aims to streamline the sys- tem by involving the OHSA di- rectly in the court investigations. Government said the Bill was proposed following criticism from the European Commis- sion's Senior Labour Inspectors Committee regarding Malta's current system of having mag- isterial inquiries held separately from OHSA investigations. In this way, the amendments would ensure that the magiste- rial inquiry is concluded only af- ter the OHSA's analysis is taken into consideration, and that the OHSA's involvement would not change the way that magisterial inquiries are carried out. nmeilak@mediatoday.com.mt Minister tells House Pilatus arbitration is confidential €17 million spent on court experts over two years According to the data, over €9.3 million was spent on court experts in 2021 alone, of which €47,000 was spent on psychological experts. In 2022, the court spent €8.1 million, of which €90,000 was expenditure on psychological experts