Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1503089
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 5 JULY 2023 NEWS Prime Minister, Home Affairs Minister testify in migrants' rights breach claim Man handed five-year prison sentence over attempt to import C4 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "This was before they applied for asylum. I was following the media and felt the need to inform the authorities of my views and bring them to shore." She told the court that she was not involved in the case, saying the commission is not involved in decisions relating to search and rescue The 32 plaintiffs, coming from Sierra Leo- ne, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Liberia and Bang- ladesh among others, had been detained on board boats normally used for coastal sight- seeing cruises, after being rescued at sea in the Maltese search and rescue region in April 2020. The case revolves around the government's chartering of four commercial sightseeing boats from Captain Morgan, a local sightsee- ing cruise company, and their use as floating detention centres for asylum seekers who had been rescued in the Maltese search and rescue region. She said she had informed the authorities concerned that if any one of them expressed an intention to apply for asylum, they were to be allowed to do so. "My office was not giv- en access to the boats, nor did we ask for it because the circumstances did not allow it." Prime Minister defends decision First to testify during Tuesday's proceed- ings, was Prime Minister Robert Abela who insisted that the decision to use the boats as offshore detention centres "was not a politi- cal decision, but a government one." "The country was in the grip of an emer- gency. The Superintendent of Public Health had declared a health emergency, our airport was closed, our ports were closed, there was a travel ban and the citizenry was not able to leave the country. We did not neglect our du- ty to save life at even a single instant," he said. He insisted that the rescued migrants were held in conditions which were as comforta- ble as the situation permitted. "The Superintendence of Public Health (SPH) issued the directives but finding a solution was our problem," Abela said, re- minding the court that he had gone to Libya himself to discuss the issue. "We did not have onshore facilities to house the migrants." Abela said it was contingency based on a public health emergency. "The choice was ei- ther to let a number of people drown or save them. We chose to save them." He also reiterated the government position that "immigration is a problem that must be addressed by all member states." Home Affairs minister says he was not in- volved in tourist boat selection Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri al- so took the stand today, telling the court that those aboard the boats had all their needs taken care of. "We provided every type of supply we could think of. Food and drink, medical supplies, phone coverage, cigarettes. We gave them all of these, but like the rest of society, they had to wait until they could enjoy full freedom," he said. He added that he was not involved in the selection of which tourist ferry operator would be hosting the migrants. "Everybody who knows me, knows I don't interfere in processes," he said. "It was a col- lective decision by government." "It was a government decision," he repeat- ed when pressed as to whether it was a deci- sion taken by the Cabinet, the parliamentary group or some other body. The plaintiffs are being assisted by aditus Foundation director and human rights law- yer Neil Falzon, aditus Foundation assis- tant director Carla Camilleri, aditus lawyer Mireille Boffa, lawyer and JRS director Ka- trine Camilleri, and lawyer Cedric Mifsud. Former refugees commissioner Roberta Buhagiar MATTHEW AGIUS A court has sentenced Jomic Calleja Maatouk to imprisonment for five years, and ordered the confisca- tion of his bail guarantees, a total of €51,000, after finding him guilty of attempting to import an amount of C4 explosive that he had purchased on the dark web. Magistrate Donatella Frendo Di- mech, who presided over the case, had heard Superintendent George Cremona testify about how coopera- tion between the Maltese police and foreign intelligence services had led to the interception of internet com- munications between a person sell- ing the C4 and a potential buyer in 2019. Superintendent Cremona and In- spector Omar Zammit were among the witnesses who had testified about the meticulous police inves- tigation which resulted in Calleja Maatouk being charged. Before settling on C4, the buy- er and seller had also discussed the possibility of buying the radioactive isotope Polonium-210 and the po- tent poison Ricin. Both substanc- es have been used in assassinations abroad in recent years. As part of the conversation, the buyer had disclosed that the intend- ed victim was a man and was asked to specify the target's height and weight so as to calculate a lethal dose. The package containing the mili- tary explosive, a 9-volt battery, tog- gle switch, mercury switch and blast- ing cap, all concealed inside a guitar amplifier, was intercepted at a US Air Force base in Arizona. After the American authorities had informed the Maltese police of the intercept- ed parcel, Superintendent Cremona and a colleague had flown to the US- AF base to see the content of the ex- plosive payload for themselves. The C4 was then removed from the package and replaced with an inert replica substance before being al- lowed to continue on its way to Mal- ta via a UK freight forwarding com- pany, addressed to a "Roger Tabone" and a "Simona Cremona" - both of whom turned out to be Calleja Maa- touk himself. He was arrested on 27 August 2019, and released on police bail two days later. After his release from arrest, the defendant had written to the seller, telling him that the order had been discovered, something which the seller had already been aware of and which had led him to cancel the order. "The order was never delivered be- cause we know pigs know about it and for obvious reasons we will not going to pick it [sic]," reads an email from Calleja Maatouk to the seller. He had then accused the seller of be- ing "one of the pigs," but was himself accused by the vendor of trying to avoid paying for the goods. The court was told that the shipper was listed as being a William Pierce from Scottsdale, Arizona. The UK delivery address was also mentioned in the dark web conversations be- tween the seller and buyer. In the end, it was a careless mistake by Calleja Maatouk that led the po- lice to zero in on him. The court was told how, when ordering the deliv- ery of the package through Express Trailers, he had done so using his own user account number, which was linked to the address of Calle- ja Maatouk's showroom in Qormi, from which he used to run an illegal bitcoin and autotrader operation, which had been shut down by the MFSA. Lawyer Benjamin Valenzia assisted the defendant. File photo showing a block of C4 explosive (Inset: Jomic Calleja Maatouk)