Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1514108
14 Looking back 2023 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 JANUARY 2024 Demons and sex: 20-year sentence for manipulating vulnerable family The year started off strong, with a conviction and 20-year prison sentence being handed down in Jan- uary, to a young man from Bormla who had manip- ulated members of a vulnerable family into perform- ing depraved sex acts on each other, by pretending to channel a demon. The punishment handed down by the Criminal Court is one of the harshest ever im- posed on a sex offender in Malta Guilt, not guilty: Daphne Caruana Galizia's murderers contest their conviction The year also saw unexpected twists in big cases. Alfred and George Degiorgio, each serving 40-year sentences after sensationally pleading guilty to the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia on the first day of their trial last year, lost an appeal in No- vember, in which they had claimed the legal aid law- yers appointed to represent them at trial had insuffi- cient time to acquaint themselves with the evidence. The Degiorgios' original lawyer dropped their brief six weeks before the trial's scheduled start date, after George Degiorgio candidly admitted, during a podcast interview, to having killed Caruana Galizia, describing the hit as "business as usual." The two murderers also filed a Constitutional case on this issue, which contin- ues in the new year. In a letter to President George Vella sent in April 2023, the Degiorgios requested a pardon in exchange for information about the involvement of a former cabinet minister in the murder. The letter coincided with the filing of more constitutional proceedings by the brothers in which they are requesting a reconsid- eration of past refusals to grant them a pardon in ex- change for that information. The waiting game: Yorgen Fenech's impending trial looms large 2024 will be a pivotal year for the case against Yorgen Fenech, the one in which he is expected to go on trial, accused of commissioning Caruana Galizia's murder. For much of 2023, his lawyers attempted to achieve - with some success - the expunging of incriminating evidence, such as references to several statements Fenech had released to the police, whilst also claim- ing the prosecution had failed to exhibit evidence that, they say, indicates the involvement of Keith Schembri and others in the plot to kill the journalist. Fenech's bid to obtain the revocation of the presiden- tial pardon issued to the self-confessed middleman in the murder, Melvin Theuma, is now in the hands of the courts after being rejected by Cabinet. Double whammy: Transport Malta's corruption woes 2023 was a bad year for the transport regulator. Transport Malta was hit with revelations that it had systematically "helped" undeserving candidates pass their driving tests, and, to top it all off - a harassment case involving two of its employees. The cases are on- going. No charge yet: Doctor and former MP at centre of €4.3 million benefits fraud In September, The Sunday Times of Malta report- ed on the extent of the disability benefit fraud at the heart of which was family doctor and former Labour MP, Silvio Grixti. The beneficiaries, tended to reside in the Labour Party strongholds of Tarxien, Żejtun, Birżebbuġa and Paola. But while the beneficiaries ap- pear to have been quietly arraigned over the latter months of 2023 for claiming benefits they were not entitled to, Grixti himself was only questioned by the police and has not been charged with any offence yet. Lilu King: Organised crime and money laundering In May, Mohamed Ali Ahmed Elmushraty, a charac- ter with a colourful past whose ostentatious displays of wealth made him a minor celebrity on social media, was arraigned alongside two other North African men, charged with money laundering, tax evasion and par- ticipation in organised crime. Other charges relating to alleged breaches of bail conditions and unlicensed driving were also pressed. Unlike the other two men, Elmushraty was not charged with drug trafficking. The court heard how, despite not declaring any in- come, Elmushraty lived a lavish lifestyle. A police sur- veillance operation had observed him using several luxury vehicles and spending time in the company of individuals who were described as "well known to the police in connection with drug importation." However, prosecutors have struggled to exhibit con- clusive evidence to support their claim that Elmushra- ty was involved in laundering the proceeds of organ- ised crime and drug trafficking, a fact highlighted by both the Court of Magistrates and the Criminal Court. No good faith: Christian Borg and No Deposit Cars In March, a group of 26 customers of No Deposit Cars filed a judicial protest against the company, its parent company Princess Holdings and the company's owner, Christian Borg, accusing them of participating in a criminal conspiracy that had forced or induced them to pay over €1,000 for imaginary contraventions. The 26 individuals are requesting the court also order that Borg be investigated and charged with participat- ing in an organised crime group. The defendants responded by putting up a banner mocking the lawyer who filed the protest and posting a video doxxing some of the signatories to the protest, by publishing their name and photos from their social media accounts. A second video singled out MaltaTo- day journalists Karl Azzopardi and Luke Vella, who had broken the story about the group's lawsuit. In August, a magistrate upheld a request to begin an inquiry into claims of kidnapping, money laundering, theft and stalking involving persons connected to No Deposit Cars Ltd. And in a scathing judgment delivered in October, Mr Justice Toni Abela annulled one client's rental agreement, concluding that the company's contracts, which included a clause forbidding clients from mak- ing complaints for latent defects, were not premised on good faith and therefore fraudulent. Demons, fraud and murder: Court is a strange beat to cover, where no two days are the same and where the crucially important mingles freely with the mind-numbingly tedious and the outright fascinating - often simultaneously. This makes summing up a year's worth of stories—a rough total of about 300 in 2023 — quite the task. Senior court reporter MATTHEW AGIUS looks back at some of the more salient court cases.