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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 9 JULY 2014 News 6 DANIEL MIZZI CHRIS MANGION CONSTRUCTION magnate and long-time PN benefactor Nazzareno Vassallo was yesterday charged in the criminal court of committing perjury, exhibiting forged minutes of meetings, and of giving a false af- fidavit – claims which if proven by the prosecution could see Vassallo end in jail or perpetual interdiction. Insisting that this is "just the tip of the iceberg," lawyer Arthur Azzop- ardi, who is representing Avantgarde Limited owner Joseph Vella in parte civile, explained that the anomalies in evidence and exhibited court doc- uments first came to light during a civil suit calling on Vassallo to pay €208,000 in damages to his client. Speaking to MaltaToday, Vassallo initially declined to give comments about the charges brought against him, claiming that comments will be given in due time. Moments later, he however said that the charges are "fabricated and untrue." "The allegations are absolutely un- true. From a file containing three inches of pages, this man [Vella] is alleging that one paper is missing from the archives," he said. Testifying before Magistrate Carol Peralta yesterday, Joseph Vella, own- er of Avantgarde Limited recounted that in 2005, then CareMalta CEO Alex Tranter set up a meeting be- tween Vella and Vassallo. The two subsequently agreed that Vella would install 60 bathrooms, and to supply bathroom tiles at Vas- sallo's Prince of Wales home for the elderly in Sliema. "At a meeting held in September 2005, I myself, Tranter, Vassallo and other CareMalta officials, had agreed that works would start on October 4. All this was recorded in the minutes of the meeting," Vella told the court yesterday. However, due to delays in con- struction works, the installation of the bathrooms was delayed and citing "unsatisfactory" work, Vas- sallo terminated the contract, re- sulting in Vella incurring €208,000 (Lm90,000) in losses. This saw Vella file a civil suit against Vassallo, in which Vassallo allegedly exhibited false documents in court. Disputes arose as to when Vella and Vassallo had agreed to start work, with the former reiter- ating that they had agreed to start work on October 4, 2005, and the latter claiming that he was never in possession of these minutes of the meeting. Subsequently in 2012, Joseph Vella complained to the police that docu- ments and copies of minutes Vas- sallo exhibited in court were fraudu- lent and tampered with. The police investigated the claim and Vassallo was charged with committing per- jury during civil proceedings, exhib- iting evidence in court knowing it was forged, giving false evidence in an affidavit which he knew would be exhibited in court and giving false evidence to a judge or magistrate during court proceedings. "Vassallo denied being in posses- sion of these minutes, but in truth he had filed them before the civil court," Azzopardi told the court. "Moreover, he had claimed that the minutes presented by Joseph Vella were not original but tampered with, but this claim was quashed by Zaren Vassallo's own architect, Ivan Pace, who corroborated Vella's version and testified that the minutes exhib- ited by Vella were in fact the correct ones," Azzopardi said. During the court sitting, Vella explained to Mag- istrate Peralta the discrepancies in a number of docu- ments. Exhibiting a three-inch thick file of documents, Vella gave details of what Vassallo had alleg- edly changed or omitted from the documents. He also said that when minutes were amended new copies were also disseminated to over-read the previous ones. However in this case there were no amendments but simply a minute was taken out from the documents Vassallo exhibited in the civil suit. Inspector Ian Abdilla is prosecut- ing. DANIEL MIZZI JOSEPH Grima, whose wife Tessie was seriously injured by a bomb mas- terminded by Ronnie Azzopardi 'is- Sufu' in 2005 – was yesterday sum- monsed to testify in the appeals' case filed by Azzopardi, who is claiming that the husband's evidence during murder proceedings was influenced by a video. Azzopardi, 42, of Cospicua, was last year handed a life term in jail after being found guilty of seriously injur- ing Grima's wife and Angela Bondin – the latter subsequently succumb- ing to her injuries a few days after the explosion. Grima survived, maimed for life. Azzopardi was also charged with the attempted murder of Mary Rose Cassar – the partner of his dead brother – and her three sons. Cassar is believed to have been the target of the bomb. Tessie Grima and Angela Bondin had ended being innocent victims of the bomb, after Tessie Grima and her husband Joseph, who were on their roof, spotted Ronnie Azzopardi dis- posing of a garbage bag. Unknown to Tessie Grima, the bag contained a bomb. A few minutes later, Tessie Grima went out into the street and dragged the bag into a garage. The bag ex- ploded, seriously injuring the wom- en. The case saw Tessie Grima's hus- band Joseph testifying that he had recognised the accused placing the garbage bag in the street, and in ad- dition, had identified the accused as the perpetrator when police present- ed him with pictures of several sus- pects– a key piece of evidence which linked Azzopardi to the bomb. But in an appeal filed before the Court of Appeal, Ronnie Azzopardi is claiming that Joseph Grima had identified the accused as the perpe- trator only after watching a video of a party attended by the accused. Testifying before the Court of Ap- peal yesterday, Grima – who has a patchy memory – told the court that he failed to identify the accused from his rooftop and that he only took note of his stature. In addition, Grima said, he only recognised him after the accused was pointed out "as the man suspect- ed of carrying a bomb" while he was watching a video with Mary Rose Cassar – just a week after the explo- sion had seriously injured his wife. CHRIS MANGION THE case against former police inspec- tor David Gatt keeps losing momentum as more witnesses tell the court that the accused was never investigated in con- nection with various theft reports. Gatt, 40, is charged with complicity in a series of armed hold-ups and heists, among them the successful HSBC Bal- zan hold-up in 2007, and the botched attempts on the HSBC head office in June 2010, and at Gold Market jewel- lery, Attard the following October. In yesterday's sitting, Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona heard five police officers and a bank representa- tives deny that Gatt was involved in a number of theft reports they had inves- tigated. PC310 Anthony Meli, PS362 Wayne Borg, PS329 Reuben Saliba, WPS48 Sarah Zerafa and PC417 Louis De- gabriele took the witness stand and under oath confirmed that the name of the accused had never surfaced in the investigations of various thefts they had worked on. The next witness was HSBC employ- ee Henry Aquilina, who also denied any knowledge of David Gatt's name being mentioned during the investiga- tion of two hold ups at HSBC branches. The former police inspector, whose re- moval from the force was found to have been illegal, has since been a practising lawyer. In 2010, he was arrested as the alleged mastermind of the HSBC heist, with PC 99 Mario Portelli claiming that the 'self-styled mafia don' had tried to rope him into his set-up. But in previ- ous sittings, Portelli, the star witness of the case, came under heavy fire when other witnesses did not corroborate his allegations. A mobile phone found inside the mattress of inmate Romeo Bone pro- duced photos of family members and 35 text messages, but none of the 93 contacts stored inside included that of David Gatt. A police forensic officer testified that no evidence of shooting was found on a tree which Portelli claimed had been shot at over 33 times by Gatt as target practice. Magistrate Micallef Trigona put off the case to August 21. Construction magnate says charges are 'fabricated' Tessie Grima's husband identified bomber on video Former inspector was never mentioned during investigations into bank heists Ronnie Azzopardi Price of Wales home for the elderly in Sliema

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