Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/541394
2 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 15 JULY 2015 News Wife of former minister ordered to pay for hospital bills MAT THEW AGIUS A court has upheld a garnishee order filed by the government Chief Medical Officer against the wife of former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia for un- paid hospital bills, which the woman was disputing, as it was not contested in the timeframe provided for by law. In July 2009, the CMO had filed a judicial letter on Elena Codruta Cristian, calling on her to pay €3,657.11 in outstanding bills for health services ren- dered at Mater Dei Hospital between 16 December 2008 and 21 December 2008, during which time she had given birth to the couple's children. After the lapse of 20 days from notification, the letter was rendered executable and a gar- nishee order was subsequently served on the banks. In 2012, as a result of the gar- nishee order, Lombard Bank withdrew the sum of €2,221 from Codruta Cristian's bank account and deposited it in court. It is this amount that Cod- ruta Cristian was contesting the withdrawal of, presenting a copy of her passport to claim that the person being called to pay the bill does not bear her name 'Elena Codruta Cristian'. The woman had submitted to the courts that €2,221 had been wrongfully debited from her bank account, also claim- ing that she was not the client being called on to pay the out- standing Mater Dei fees as the garnishee order had been is- sued with her surname misspelt as 'Corduta'. However, the court held that her ID card number and ad- dress matched that specified in the letter. Magistrate Gabri- ella Vella commented that the spelling mistake was in her middle name "and without go- ing into the issue of reasonable doubt as to her identity... would be adopting a rigid formalism that is no longer recognised in our justice system." In addition, the court pointed to the article of the law regu- lating judicial letters, which clearly states that the once 20 days had lapsed from the date in which the debtor had been notified, the sworn declaration of debt, made by the creditor, "has the same effect as if it had been a judgment of the compe- tent court," granting the credi- tor "executive title", which it could then enforce by means of a garnishee. Express citizenship Last month, MaltaToday re- vealed that Codruta was grant- ed Maltese citizenship within a period of less than nine months after applying for naturalisa- tion in 2014. A redacted version of the ap- plication by Elena Codruta Cristian was obtained by Mal- taToday under a Freedom of In- formation request. But apart from the deletion of her personal data, Identity Malta has also cancelled out the name of the sponsor. Malta- Today has filed a complaint to Identity Malta requesting the publication of this information as well as indicating how and who green-lit the citizenship application. At law, a sponsor for a person seeking naturalisation must be an MP, a member of the judici- ary, a legal or medical profes- sional, a high-ranking police or army officer, or a parish priest certif ying that the applicant is of good character. Mallia's Romanian-born wife – the couple were married on 21 July, 2012 – applied under Arti- cle 10 of the Maltese Citizen- ship Act, to request citizenship on the ground of having resided in Malta for at least seven years preceding the application. Mallia has denied having ex- amined the request of his wife for citizenship during the time he was minister responsible for citizenship. Former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia and his wife Elena Codruta Cristian Divers find 20kg of cannabis in Gozo THE police arrested a number of people after a plastic bag filled with cannabis resin was retrieved from the sea on Monday. The find was made by a group of divers in Gozo who immediately alerted the police towards the suspicious package. A patrol car from the Gozo Mo- bile squad was stopped by a group of divers in Xwejni Bay, Zebbug, Gozo on Monday. The divers claimed that they had just found a suspicious container close to the coast. The container, which was inside a black plastic bag, was handed over to the police. It was later found to be containing about 20kg of what is suspected to be cannabis resin. The duty magistrate appointed several experts to assist in the in- quiry. Some 20kg of cannabis resin was retrieved at Xwejni Bay, Gozo, by a number of divers Egyptian man jailed, fined for Isle of MTV rampage MATTHEW AGIUS THE Egyptian man who attacked police officers during the Isle of MTV concert at the Granaries last week was yesterday jailed for 11 months and fined €5,000. Police Inspectors Priscilla Carua- na Lee and Pierguido Saliba had ar- raigned Tamer Mohamed Hussein Rozik, 36, from Egypt last Thurs- day, following an incident at Flori- ana where he had jumped on the bonnet of a car, ripped off a wiper blade and then attacked policemen who had tried to stop him with such savagery that he broke one of- ficer's motorcycle helmet. During that sitting, with the aid of a translator, Rozik had pleaded guilty to 10 charges that included violently resisting arrest, attack- ing a police officer, slightly injuring a police officer, causing criminal damage and breaching the peace. Inspector Saliba had told the court that the incident began when a car struck the accused slightly. Enraged, the man jumped on the car "in a frenzy". A policeman, who had been di- recting traffic up to that point, had noticed the man jumping on a car bonnet and trying to pull off its wipers and intervened, only for the accused to savagely attack the of- ficer, splitting his helmet and tear- ing his motorcycle leathers. Rozik was eventually restrained with the help of bystanders and had been taken to the police station and placed in leg restraints. Later, while he was being driven to a clinic, he had almost caused the police car to crash when he kicked the driver with both legs and had also bitten the couch at the polyclinic. Rozik had pleaded guilty to all charges. Lawyer Stephen Tonna Lowell, appearing on behalf of Virtù Ferries, had informed the court that the company was pre- pared to foot the bill for the dam- ages caused by its employee, which amounted to €1,383. In the sentence, which was de- livered today, Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras took note of the mitigating circumstances but held that "violence directed against public officials who were carrying out their duties is neither accept- able nor tolerable". The court sentenced the Egyp- tian to 11 months' incarceration and fined him €5,000, also order- ing him to pay an additional €594 in respect of the damages he had caused.