Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/352862
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 JULY 2014 15 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The Lands Department on Thursday rejected MaltaToday's freedom of informa- tion request for the correspondence exchanged with the company that was paid €4.2 million to relinquish a 65-year lease on Café Premier, af- ter it had been sued in court by the same Lands Department over non- payment of its annual lease. Cities Entertainment was faced with eviction in December 2012 but after Labour's election, the court ac- tion was stopped in the summer of 2013, and the government paid the company enough money to settle its banking debt and outstanding dues to public corporations and creditors, so that it would vacate the premises. The Lands Department is refusing also to reveal the reports and archi- tect's estimate carried out to assess the value of compensation payable to Cities Entertainment, for the "amica- ble expropriation" – as it was dubbed by the parliamentary secretariat for lands – of the two premises on Old Treasury and Old Theatre streets. The Lands Department said the documents were exempt "due to an ongoing police investigation" that had been initiated by the then parlia- mentary secretary for lands, Michael Farrugia, over comments made by Jason Azzopardi. The Lands Department even availed itself of the maximum time at law to refuse the application: it was filed on 21 April, then extended by the Lands Department on 20 June, refused on 12 June, and again refused on internal review on 22 July – an en- tire three months. Under Article 30 of the FOIA, a document is exempt from the law if it "could be reasonably expected to prejudice the conduct of an investi- gation" into a breach of the law. Under the deal brokered by the La- bour government, Cities Entertain- ment had to pay back an outstanding €2.5 million bank loan, their income tax and VAT arrears, energy bills, ground rents owed to the State, and other creditors of the owners of the Café Premier. Cities Entertainment director Nev- ille Curmi, an established stockbro- ker, had claimed with MaltaToday that taxpayers "got value for their money" because the value of Café Premier was far more than €4.2 mil- lion. At the time of the court action, the café was paying just over €93,000 in annual ground rent. Under the €4.2 million deal, Cities Entertainment paid back €307,346 to settle outstanding arrears with the government property division and €504,000 in capital gains tax owed on the land; €192,748 to the Inland Revenue Department to set- tle income tax and social security payments, €227,058 to the VAT De- partment on outstanding dues and legal procedures against the com- pany, and €130,963 in energy bills for ARMS; and also €210,000 to the company's own shareholders, M&A Investments, and €3,265 to creditors Golden Harvest. Finally, another €2,560,800 was paid to Banif Bank, in settlement of the outstanding bank loans that Cities Entertainment held with the bank, payable in four instalments. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt News Lands Department blocks FOI request on dubious grounds COURT NOTICE The Registrar, Civil Courts and Tribunals notifies that the First Hall of the Civil Court ordered the sale by judicial auction of the following property to be held in the corridors of the Courts of Justice, Republic Street, Valletta. Date, Time -Judicial Sale No Property 7 th August, 2014 11.00am - 8/2014 JGL The tenement named "The Wilderness", before known as "Havana Club", in Triq ta' Pinu, also known as Triq l- G�arb, today named Triq Papa �wanni Pawlu t- tieni, limits of G�arb, Gozo, on two floors, subject to an annual and perpetual ground rent and sub ground of ninety Euros and Eighty Five cents (!90.85). This tenement underlays property named "il- Mina Restaurant" Restaurant without number named "il- Mina Restaurant" in Triq ta' Pinu, also known as Triq l- G�arb, today named Triq Papa �wanni Pawlu t- tieni, limits of G�arb, Gozo, subject to an annual and perpetual ground rent of thirty four Euros and ninety five cents (!34.95). This tenement overlays the property named "The Wilderness". The properties are free and unencumbered valued at one million, four hundred and fifty euro (! 1,450,000) Further details can be obtained from the website: http://www.justiceservices.gov.mt/courtservices/JudicialSales/search.aspx The bidders taking part in the auction must present their identity card. Rudolph Marmara' For the Registrar of Civil Courts and Tribunals 103 years ago, Gozo girl's disappearance ILLUM newspaper today features the case of the disappearance of Modesta Cefai, 6, in 1911 – un- solved to this day. But Cefai's sister grandson is determined to find her remains. On 27 August 1911, Cefai walked out of her home in Rabat, Gozo, to never be seen again. Her father filed a police report nine hours later and the police spent the whole night searching for her, but to no avail. Two days after her disappearance, Modesta's father Lorenzo Frendo, a 50-year-old man of kidnapping his daughter and tak- ing her to his house. Investigations into Frendo's residence yielded no results. More 'witnesses' came forward with alleged sightings: M'Anna Sac- co claimed she had seen Modesta by herself in Xaghra; then Maurizio Cauchi claimed he had seen blood- stained rags on Triq Kercem which he suspected being part of Modesta's pink dress her father had last seen her in. Modesta's mother was shown the rags, but confirmed that they were not her daughter's dress. In 1968, a new inquiry into Mod- esta's remains was reopened, spark- ing rumours that workers had uncov- ered human bones in a Rabat house being restored. But police have de- nied that such a discovery was ever made. Modesta Cefai's sister's grandson, university lecturer Joe Azzopardi, re- mais determined to find her remains. "My dream that of Modesta's rela- tives has always been to find her re- mains so that we will be able to give her the burial she deserves in her family grave," Azzopardi tells Illum. Read the full feature article in today's edition of Illum.