Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/678126
8 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 11 MAY 2016 News IN ALL LEADING BOOK SHOPS HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY IN MALTA Falzon's aide 'hounded' lands notary to file Gaffarena expropriation Notary tells court that he had been given all the documents required to compile the legal advice on the expropriation before the President had even made her declaration of intention to expropriate MATTHEW AGIUS A court has heard a lands de- partment notary testify to being hounded by Clint Scerri, an offi- cial in Michael Falzon's secretari- at, to rush through the Gaffarena expropriation contracts, and a former property co-owner claim to have been misled by another notary as Ms Justice Anna Fe- lice heard a number of witnesses testify in the government's court case over the Old Mint Street ex- propriation scandal. Notary Anthony Hili testified on Tuesday afternoon in the Con- stitutional case filed by the Prime Minister and the Attorney Gen- eral against Marco and Josielle Gaffarena, the Lands Registrar and the Commissioner for Lands to revoke the expropriation of a half undivided share of a prop- erty in Old Mint Street, Valletta. Attorney General Peter Grech asked the witness whether he had published any contracts in Janu- ary and April 2015. "I published the first contract between the government and the Gaffarenas in January and the second, in April," he said. "In that contract the couple had sold the government their rights over a quarter undivided share of the 34, Old Mint Street prop- erty. The government transferred four properties in part-exchange, together with the additional pay- ment of €138,890," Hili said. He recalled that the first con- tract had been with Marco Gaf- farena alone, and that he trans- ferred a quarter undivided share of the utile dominium perpetu- um – the perpetual beneficial ownership – of the block 36, Old Mint Street, Valletta. This was in reaction to an expropriation or- der in January. "The second contract was an- other contract of exchange fol- lowing an expropriation of an additional undivided share of the same old Mint Street property," said the witness. "The Gaffarenas transferred an undivided quarter of the utile do- minium perpetuum of the same property in exchange for another three properties, and a cash set- off of €377,500." Contract drafted in two days Notarial searches into the root of title of ownership had to be given to the lands department on a special form, which would be attached to the contract, to- gether with the legal advice upon which the contracts were drawn up. Cross-examined by defence lawyer Keith Bonnici the witness said that he had drafted the con- tracts of exchange himself. Lawyer Peter Caruana Galizia, appearing for a number of indi- viduals who also own a share in the property, also cross-exam- ined the witness. The President's declarations in both cases did not indicate the owner of the un- divided quarter share, he said. Normally, together with the le- gal advice to the President (part of the expropriation formalities) there would be a sentence saying that it applied to the entirety of the property, said the witness, but in this case there had been an addenda stipulating that the ad- vice was being made only for the quarter share. Lawyer Tanya Sciberras Camill- eri, who together with Caruana Galizia is representing the other co-owners, also cross-examined the notary. "When I needed more docu- ments for this case, I would be in contact with Clint Scerri from the ministry," said Hili. Scerri had started being involved af- ter parliamentary secretary Mi - chael Falzon had entered office. "He would come in or phone and chase workers to move the work along." He had been chasing the witness for these two contracts in particular. The notary said he had been given all the documents required to compile the legal advice on the expropriation before the Presi- dent had even made her declara- tion of intention to expropriate. "The contract was not already drafted on my side, but the doc- uments were there. I drafted the contract in two days." The searches had arrived well before the publication and so the wit- ness had sufficient time to have a good look at them, he said. During the period leading up to the expropriation, Clint Scerri would call the witness every oth- er day, he said. "I understand that Clint Scerri was the person in contact with the Gaffarenas," he replied, when asked who the go-between be- tween the Gaffarenas and the de- partment had been. Dr. Claude Sapiano, Assistant Lands registrar since 2011 also took the witness stand. Asked about how the govern- ment acquires property, the wit- ness replied that he would be responsible for registering the ac- quisition. With regard to the Old Mint Street properties, he read out a declaration presented on 28 January, 2015 and a contract in the records of notary Anthony Hili made the next day, referring to an undivided quarter share of a property at 36 Old Mint Street, another at 67-70 St John's Street and a third at 427 St Patrick's Street. A former co-owner of the Old Mint Street property, Antonio Mercieca testified that the Old Mint Street property had been bought by his grandfather. He in- herited from both his mother and father as they were cousins. "We sold my dad's share as Mr Gaffarena didn't want to buy it all. Although we made two prom- ises of sale on one day, he wanted my father's part to be separate because there were a lot of re- searches for my mother's prop- erty. This was on the 31.10.14." The quarter share of the prop- erty was then sold to Gaffarena on the 26.02.15 for Lm60,000 (€139,762), he said. "Notary Angela Bezzina made me declare that there has been no expropriation pending on this property. I had not known that there had been a declaration by the President at the time." The case continues. Gaffarena was paid €1.65 million in lump cash sum and selected lands by the Government Property Division