Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/424604
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2014 10 News RAPHAEL VASSALLO IN his reply to budget criticism in parliament last Tuesday, Prime Min- ister Joseph Muscat chose to end his delivery with a call for Malta to be- come 'more liberal'. Significantly, he saved for last his government's plans to decriminalise drug use: an indication of the impor- tance attached to this policy as a ma- jor plank in the Labour government's 'progressive, moderate' agenda. "We must be courageous and start talking about the need to decrimi- nalise drugs," Muscat told a packed House, which had hitherto been the scene for much cross-floor bickering and acrimonious altercation. "We may not take the most popular deci- sions, but we take those we feel are the most just. The biggest challenge of all will be the decriminalisation of drugs." This, he claimed, would mark a "generational change" from past at- titudes towards the same phenom- enon. Certainly it makes a change from the more traditional approach to drugs by Malta's two main political parties. The word 'drogi' has in fact reverberated across the political me- dia for the past 20 years at least: often as not proving to be a minefield that politicians can only tread at their own great peril. Witness, for instance, how the controversial presidential pardon granted to convicted drug trafficker Francisco Assis Queiroz in the early 1990s had radically altered the state of political play between the two par- ties at the time: opening up a whole new arena for political warfare. This case alone arguably set the stage for the same draconian laws that Muscat now intends to down- scale. Reacting to Opposition alle- gations that his government was in the pockets of 'drug barons', Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami had at the time radically harshened the penalties for drug trafficking: im- posing a mandatory prison sentence for all cases, regardless of substance or quantity; and retaining a system which failed to distinguish between 'trafficking' and 'cultivation' for per- sonal use. The effects of these changes were to be radical and far-reaching. Over the next 20 years, Malta witnessed an increasing number of manifestly un- just drug-related sentences: the most archetypal of which remains the case of Gisela Feuz, a Swiss teenager jailed for six months in 1995 over minus- cule quantities of cannabis resin found in her handbag at the airport. Coming so soon after the early re- lease of Queiroz – who, unlike Feuz, had imported 3.5 kilos of cocaine – the vastly different weights and measures only reinforced the im- pression of a criminal justice system which was 'strong with the weak and weak with the strong'. After a number of analogous cases in which harmless foreigners were arrested over insignificant amounts of cannabis, then Home Affairs Min- ister Tonio Borg was forced to per- sonally intervene. The mandatory prison sentence stipulated by the earlier drug law reform was eventu- ally removed. Nonetheless the law to this day retains basic flaws… a hangover, so to speak, from the days when politi- cal parties competed over the most ham-fisted drug policies, all against the backdrop of mounting media hysteria regarding the drugs 'plague'. Drugs: the political side-effects But the relationship between drugs and politics in Malta goes well be- yond sporadic legislative reforms and allegations of corruption here and there. Apart from their vari- ous mind-altering properties, illegal drugs also seem to have deleterious side effects on political careers. One early political casualty of the war on drugs was former Justice Minister Charles Mangion, who was made to resign in 1998 over another Presidential pardon given to another convicted drug-trafficker. Mangion's actual involvement in this case turns out under scrutiny to have been minimal – it was more of an administrative oversight than an- ything else – but such was the politi- cal furore his own party had kicked up over the earlier Queiroz case, that Prime Minister Alfred Sant had little choice but to put his money where his mouth was, and axe his own lieu- tenant. To date, Mangion's resignation is still cited as the 'exception that makes the rule', in a country where political resignations are few and very far between. Even more pivotal an example was the (technically unsolved) attempt- ed assassination of Richard Cachia Caruana in 1994… a case which also had drug overtones (at least, accord- ing to the prosecution at the time). The man eventually charged with this crime was Meinrad Calleja, a convicted drug trafficker. Calleja's earlier conviction had led directly to the resignation of his father, Briga- dier Maurice Calleja, as commander in chief of the Armed Forces. The prosecution's main thesis was that Meinrad Calleja had pinned the blame for his father's resignation on Cachia Caruana, the Prime Minis- ter's personal assistant, and plotted his murder in revenge. In order to nail the chief suspect, Drugs and politics 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, Judicial Sale No. and Time Property 2 nd December, 2014 42/13 – 10.30am EGL • The tenements numbered fifty six (56), fifty seven (57) and fifty eight (58) in Triq San Gwann, Bormla, free and unencumbered, with its rights and appurtenances, valued at eighty three thousand euro (!83,000). • A garage numbered seven (7) in Triq it-Tobra, "al-Lija, who has access in Triq il-Larin#, H'Attard valued at fifteen thousand and five hundred euro (!15,500). 2 nd December, 2014 69/11 – 11.30am PP Portion of land measuring approximately four hundred seventy-five square metres (475 sq. m.), forming part of the lands known as "Tal-Iskorra l-Kbira", limits of $ejtun, in Tal-Iskorra l-Kbira district, subject to an annual and temporary ground rent of forty-six euro and fifty nine cents (!46.59) for an outstanding period of eighteen (18) years, valued at eleven thousand euro (!11,000). 4 th December, 2014 34/14 – 10.30am PP The garage, number four (4), forming part from a complex of six garages (6), number one hundred and fifty five (155), Alley number 2, Triq il-Kbira, $abbar, and is subject to annual and perpetual ground rent of thirty two Euro and ninety eight cents (!32.98), otherwise free and unencumbered with all its rights and appurtenances, overlying airspace belongs to third parties, valued at twenty thousand Euro (!20,000). 4 th December, 2014 112//12 – 11.30am PP Apartment internally marked with the number nine (9), forming part of a block known as "Verdemar Park" number five (5) in Triq il- Bajja, Salina, limits of Naxxar, including the common entrance and staircase of the said block but excluding the airspace of the said block, valued at one hundred and fifteen thousand euro (!115,000). 4 th December, 2014 22/14 – 12.00pm PP • Maisonette named 'Lord Reigns' without airspace in Triq San %u&epp, Mosta annual and perpetual ground rent of Seventy Euros valued at one hundred and three thusand and five hundred Euros (!103,500) • Garage internally marked with number three (3) forming part and underlying the same block in Triq San Guzepp, Mosta, free and unencumbered with all its rights and enjoyments valued at thirteen thousand Euro ( !13,000) 9 th December, 2014 6/13 – 10.30am • Apartment number one (1), in a block of apartments built instead of tenement number sixty two (62), Triq San Luqa, St. EGL Paul's Bay subject to annual and perpetual ground rent of sixteen cents and four mils euro (! 0.16,4) as well as pro rata share of the common parts of the block valued at forty-five thousand euro (! 45,000). • Apartment number three (3) in a block of apartments built instead of tenement number sixty two (62), Triq San Luqa, St. Paul's Bay subject to annual and perpetual ground rent of sixteen cents and four mils euro (! 0.16,4) as well as pro rata share of the common parts of the block valued at seventy thousand euro (! 70,000). 9 th December, 2014 33/13 – 11.00am PP House numbered thirty five (35) in Triq is- Sajjieda, Marsa valued at sixty three thousand Euros (! 63,000) 9 th December, 2014 49/13 – 11.30am PP • Shop officially numbered seven hundred and twenty (720) in Triq il- Kbira, "amrun without airspace underlaying property of third. The shop has a common rainwater and drainage system with the overlaying property and is subject to servitudes which result from the said position.The property is subject to an annual ground rent of four hundred and sixty seven Euros and eighty seven cents (!467.87) valued at two hundred and fifty five thousand Euros ( !255,000) • Shop officially numbered seven hundred and twenty one (721) in Triq il- Kbira, "amrun. The shop is subject to servitudes which result from the said position free and unencumbered valued at one hundred and thirty two Thousand Euros ( !132,000). 11 th December, 2014 77/13 – 12.00pm PP • Apartment internally marked number three (3), on the second floor including overlaying air space forming part of Block of Apartments' named 'Anvil Apartments', numbered four (4), in Triq il- Minfa', Naxxar, free and unencumbered valued one hundred and ninety thousand Euros (!190,000) Included with the apartment there is the use of the common parts which include the outside stairs, outside door, entrance hall, the stairs to the roof, the lift and its shaft and water and drainage system. ! Six Garages under the block of apartments named 'Anvil Apartments', numbered four (4), in Triq il- Minfa', Naxxar internally marked; ! Garage number two (2) of approx 73.47 meters squared valued forty five thousand Euros (! 45,000) ! Garage number three (3) of approx 13.71 meters squared valued twenty three thousand Euros (! 23,000) • Portion of land marked number twelve (12) measuring circa one hundred and sixty five metres squared (165m 2 ), bordering from the west with a projected private street, from the North with properties of Mariella Mercieca and from the South with property of Three Jays Limited, an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in blue of circa seven hundred and thirty three metres squared (733m 2 ), an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in pink of circa three hundred and seventy eight metres squared (378m 2 ) and an undivided share of 1/37 of a lane marked in green, free and unencumbered, valued at one hundred and ten thousand Euros( !110,000 ). • Portion of land marked number twenty seven (27) measuring circa one hundred sixty eight metres squared (168m 2 ), bordering from the East with a projected private street ,from the North with plot number twenty six (26) property of Three Jays. Ltd and from The South with plot number twenty eight (28) property of Small Properties Limited, an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in blue of circa seven hundred and thirty three metres squared (733m 2 ), an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in pink of circa three hundred and seventy eight metres squared (378m 2 ) and an undivided share of 1/37 of a lane marked in green, free and unencumbered, valued at one hundred and thirty five thousand Euros ( !135,000 ). • Portion of land marked number twenty eight (28) measuring circa one hundred sixty eight metres squared (168m 2 ), bordered from West and East with a projected private street,from the North with plot number twenty seven (27) property of Small Properties Limited an undivided share of 1/37 from every part of land projected for a street and an undivided share of 1/37 of a lane, free and ununcumbered and an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in blue of circa seven hundred and thirty three metres squared (733m 2 ), an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in pink of circa three hundred and seventy eight metres squared (378m 2 ) and an undivided share of 1/37 of a lane marked in green, free and unencumbered valued at one hundred and forty eight thousand Euros (!148,000). 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 Recent tectonic changes to the political landscape suggest that drugs are no longer the political minefield they used to be. But the real revolution in the Drugs Decriminalisation Bill may be of a medical, not political, nature Beppe Fenech Adami