Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1528241
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 23 OCTOBER 2024 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA mvella@mediatoday.com.mt 22-year-old Vuk Milic pleads not guilty to murder of his cellmate CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 During the arraignment, par- te civile lawyer Franco Debono told the court that he was not informed that the case had started. The court then restart- ed the arraignment. The prosecution recalled that the inquiring inspector was in- formed that Vuk Milic had a conversation with a medical of- ficer at the Correctional Servic- es Agency and confessed to him that he was involved in the will- ful homicide of Jesmond Gatt. The prosecution said that police investigations into the death were also ongoing, and the inspector requested an ar- rest warrant for Milic. Milic was deemed fit for interrogation. He had allegedly confessed with Inspector Kurt Zahra that he was the one that killed Jesmond Galea. The defence stated that the accused had allegedly confessed to the crime during this interro- gation, despite not being in the presence of a lawyer. Defence lawyer Jose Herrera asked the court to minute the validity of the accused's state- ments, adding that the defence was not given disclosure on the evidence against their client. The prosecution counter ar- gued that the accused had waived his rights upon initi- ating the interrogation proce- dure. They further added that the accused had wanted to "take something off his chest" and confessed to the medical officer at the prison, as he told them that he was the one that killed Jesmond Gatt. The prosecution further add- ed that once the accused was certified that he was declared fit by a psychiatrist that he was able to be interrogated, he was informed of his rights "three times" and signed a document waiving his right to legal rep- resentation. Herrera, on behalf of the ac- cused, requested the court to appoint a psychiatrist to vali- date and examine the accused's capacity to follow proceedings, since the defence wishes to reg- ulate itself on the plea of insan- ity. The defence will consider raising such a plea once the as- sessment is made. It has made it clear that it will not make a plea of insanity at this time, since it still requires full disclosure. As a precautionary measure it has requested the court to ap- point a psychiatrist to analyse in a generic way the mental status of the defendant so that based on the police report, it could better consider giving and re- ceiving instructions on the plea of insanity and the time of the offence. The court rejected the request on the basis of the fact that as postulated, it is too vague, and it cannot be exceeded accord- ing to the directions specified in the law. The court said it cannot move forward with the request to appoint a psychiatrist. Bail was not requested. Lawyers Kaylie Bonett and Darlene Grima, from the At- torney General's Office, along with Inspectors Kurt Zahra and Wayne Camilleri, representing the Commissioner of the Police led the prosecution Lawyers Jose Herrera, Alex Scerri Herrera, Matthew Xuer- eb headed the defence counsel. Lawyer Franco Debono was parte civile counsel. Vuk Milic (inset) is being accused of the murder of Jesmond Gatt at the Forensic Unit in Mount Carmel Hospital THE budget deficit in 2023 climbed to 4.5% of GDP, a total of €938.9 million but government debt was still far lower than the Maastricht ceiling, with 47.4% of GDP – €9.79 billion. The deficit, the result of total spedning of €7.5 billion compared to €6.56 billion in revenues, was still an improvement of €15.5 million over that of 2022 (5.2% of GDP). When comparing 2023 to 2022, total revenue increased by €626.1 million, while total expenditure increased by €610.5 million. Debt increased by €780.5 million over 2022, but in terms of GDP it fell from 49.4% to 47.4% in 2022. The NSO said the 2023 deficit figure is the result of several ac- crual-based adjustments to the government's consolidated figure, which had registered an €808 mil- lion deficit. The largest negative adjustment was related to €402 million in Treasury Department accruals, adjustments for the EU Funds neutralisation, and COVID-19 tax deferrals. Other negative ad- justments were Treasury Clear- ance Funds (TCF) in non-finan- cial transactions (€11.8 million), rerouted transactions inside the General Government sector and public-private partnership (PPP) agreements (€8.9 million), and the recording for payable tax credits (€6.1 million). Positive adjustments included time-adjusted cash transactions (€160.7 million) and an increased surplus recorded by the EBUs, which reached €119.7 million, an increase of €32.5 million when compared to 2022. Other increases were the differ- ence between interest paid and accrued (€10.6 million), interest received from the sinking fund (€5.8 million) and the aggregated surplus from Local Government of €0.6 million. Reporting and updates On 30 September 2024, Malta submitted the government deficit and debt levels for the years 2020- 2023, as part of the Excessive Defi- cit Procedure (EDP) Notification. When compared to the previous submission of 28 March 2024, the deficit of the general government was revised down for all the years under review, with the main re- visions being in 2023 (-€11.5m), 2022 (-€10.3m) and 2021 (-€5.6m). The main revision was due to up- dated data relating to the payable tax credits, in 2022 (-€8.7m) and in 2023 (-€14.4m). Additionally, the availability of audited financial statements for EBUs and local councils resulted in a combined downward revision of the fiscal balance, amounting to €0.8 million in 2020, €5.8 million in 2021, €1.8 million in 2022, and €0.1 million in 2023. The revisions in General Gov- ernment debt were due to the in- clusion of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) deferral interest, as along with the avail- ability of audited accounts for EBUs and local councils. As a result, the debt figures were revised upwards by €8.7 million for 2020 and €9.7 million for 2021, with more significant revisions of €11.2 million and €23.6 million for 2022 and 2023, respectively. Revised deficit for 2023 at 4.5% of GDP Finance minister Clyde Caruana with IMF chief Christine Lagarde