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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2014 News 6 Mafia boss extradition case to continue Man cleared of defiling adopted daughter Temporary warrant sends Customs back to brass tacks Unemployed brothers jailed for drug trafficking Defence's attempt to have case thrown out on a technicality fails Luxury cars seized after police surveillance operation pays off EXTRADITION proceedings against Sicilian Mafia boss Sebas- tiano Brunno are to continue after a magistrate yesterday rejected his request to have his arrest declared null. Lawyers Robert Montalto and Michaela Spiteri had argued that the authorities in Catania had based their request on a "non-existent" judgment, due to a technicality: the Italian authorities had initially also wanted to try Brunno over an attempted murder, however it later emerged that no judgment on this crime was ever delivered. There was also a discrepancy in the punishment specified in the extra- dition request. The actual sentence was one of life imprisonment with six months in solitary confinement, but the extradition documents sent to Malta mentioned one year in soli- tary confinement. It was subsequently found that the year-long solitary sentence was the original and the other one was the result of an appeal. Montalto and Spiteri argued that this nullified the arrest warrant signed by Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona, as well as subsequent court proceedings. Magistrate Aaron Bugeja held that "the court feels that substance ought to prevail over formalism" adding that "in spite of the errors on the part of both the Italian and the Maltese authorities in subsequent submissions, none of this substan- tially changed the central issue." Magistrate Bugeja noted that al- though there was a mistake in the description of the crimes and some of the punishments for which Brun- no was condemned, it could not be ignored that the sentences in sub- stance confirmed Brunno's guilt for homicide and possession of a fire- arm. "This court must give effect to the final intention of the judgments. This court cannot say that because of these errors, the substantial part of the extradition request is to be disregarded". The extradition order was based on this original sentence, which was correct. The rectitude or otherwise of the subsequent sentences which reformed the original should not impinge on the execution of the cor- rect one. A succession of Italian courts dealt with the case, resulting in the charg- es of attempted murder and posses- sion of explosives being dropped, however he was found guilty of murder and possession of weapons. The court will next hear submis- sions from Brunno. MAT THEW AGIUS A Marsascala man has been cleared of three counts of sexual offences against a 14-year-old adopted girl after a magistrate ruled "serious doubts exist as to the truth behind the allegations". The 49 year-old, who was the partner of the girl 's mother, had pleaded not guilt y to charges of the violent indecent assault of a minor, participating in sex acts with a minor and corruption of the minor. The court had heard the minor testif y that the abuse had begun after her parents were separated but that her mother had other partners who would live with them from time to time. The abuser was her mother's latest partner. The girl told the court that she had left home after her mother disapproved of a lesbian relation- ship she was having. She had re- turned home after a few days how- ever, but needed to contact the other girl. She claimed that the accused offered her the use of his mobile phone in return for sexual favours. She told the court that these exchanges continued for months, progressing over time from inap- propriate touching to full inter- course. The court heard that she had several sex partners before meeting the accused, including a same-sex relationship with anoth- er girl her age. The girl claimed that she had become depressed when this relationship ended and she was referred to Mount Carmel hospital after a suicide attempt. However, the girl's testimony was littered with inconsisten- cies and her depiction of events changed several times; first say- ing that no sex acts took place, later saying that they had in fact taken place. Social workers and doctors who treated her, however consistently testified that she had changed her story on at least two other occasions. One psychiatrist who treated the girl testified that she had psy- chological problems from a young age and that she was more likely to lie than healthy individuals due to her particular condition. Another medical professional told the court that the girl had al- so made similar allegations about another man, who later commit- ted suicide. The court heard that the girl was labelled as a troublemaker at several schools. Her mother had, once again moved her to a different school after she was suspended for her homosexual relationship with another student. The girl's mother told the court that she felt that the motive behind the allegations was to exact revenge on her for not allowing the girl to continue her relationship with the other girl. Magistrate Audrey Demicoli de- clared the accused not guilty of all charges. A court has provisionally upheld a request filed by a scrap metal deal- er, preventing the Director Gen- eral of Customs from proceeding with an auction of 88 tonnes of scrap metal for which a tender was issued. The plaintiffs, operators in the metal waste management sector, claim that they had been prevent- ed from freely viewing the items that were listed for sale in a tender published by the customs depart- ment. The warrant of prohibitory in- junction, signed by lawyers John Bonello and Franco Debono, is to temporarily prevent the sale of seven lots of red brass scrap, weighing some 88,000kgs in total, worth over €400,000. According to the company's ver- sion of events, when a representa- tive of DDE Attard Ltd went to the Customs Stores in Marsa to inspect the objects for sale, he was prevented from doing so and in- stead, was handed a small sample. On being tested, the sample was found to be the much less valuable yellow brass, as opposed to the ad- vertised red brass. The plaintiff claims that this fact, together with the fact that the sale is on a tale quale basis has prejudiced the rights of DDE At- tard Ltd and therefore requested the court to issue the warrant in order to prevent the sale. A magistrate's court has condemned two "unemployed" brothers to four and a half years in prison and fined them €10,000 apiece after finding them guilty of trafficking heroin between 2009 and 2010. Freddie Delia, 36, and his brother Rodrick, 33, both known as "il- Papaj" were also found guilty of money laundering. In her judgment, Magistrate Miriam Hayman noted that in spite of living on social benefits of €91.55, the pair drove luxury cars, albeit registered in their father's and brother's name. She expressed her disbelief as to how someone living on this miserable amount could afford to buy a BMW Z4 for €24,000 in cash and a Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4. Inspector Victor Aquilina testi- fied that the Delias were placed under surveillance because while he was investigating another drugs case, he had been told that the drugs were being bought from "a certain Rodrick". Several other witnesses also made statements to the police that they would buy their drugs from the same Rodrick. The police began surveillance operations on the residence of one of these witnesses in the hope of catching the accused. On June 1, 2010, the police saw Rodrick Delia leaving a vehicle in the Bulebel in- dustrial area and handing a packet to a man later identified as Du- ranovic Coreschi, whom they ar- rested. Coreschi was found to have swallowed the packet in an attempt to avoid arrest. During interrogation, Coreschi, too, confirmed that he had bought the drugs from Rodrick Delia for €20. The prosecution, led by Inspec- tors Jesmond Borg and Johan Fenech, told the court that Freddie Delia had taunted the police who had his house under watch, telling them that he had burned the drugs and they wouldn't find a thing. The police moved in and arrested them. Traces of cocaine and heroin were indeed found in a pot full of ash found at Delia's residence. In delivering sentence, the mag- istrate said that she did not have the slightest doubt that the source of the two brothers' wealth was the drugs trade. She also ordered the confiscation of the vehicles. Sebastiano Brunno