Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/765642
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 21 DECEMBER 2016 News 6 Failed IIP applicant claims 'impossible' bail conditions breach human rights MATTHEW AGIUS CHILEAN investor and failed IIP applicant Alberto Chang- Rajii is claiming that a Criminal Court has violated his funda- mental rights by imposing a bail condition that it knew he would be unable to satisfy, after the court registrar refused to accept the payment of his €100,000 bail deposit in cash. Chang-Rajii remains in cus- tody, having been arrested in Sliema last week on the strength of an extradition request by the judicial authorities in Chile, where he is wanted on charges of defrauding investors out of nearly $100 million. He had disappeared from the United States in April, where he is also wanted for allegedly mis-selling over $5.7 million in investment schemes, turning up in Malta as an applicant for Mal- tese citizenship under the Indi- vidual Investor Programme. He was granted a residence permit by Identity Malta, according to media reports, but soon after charges were issued against him abroad, Identity Malta had re- voked the residence permit and his citizenship application was eventually rejected. The Chilean businessman is fighting extradition on the grounds of what his lawyers allege to be f laws in the inves- tigation in Chile. "He is trying to avoid what he believes to be a malicious prosecution," Filletti had explained to the Criminal Court last week, while offer- ing to exhibit an agreement by lawyers in Chile to a settlement of $30 million that he claimed could lead to the withdrawal of extradition proceedings. Despite being granted bail against a deposit of €100,000, Chang-Rajii remains in prison due to an administrative policy which forbids cash deposits of more than €11,000 in court. The Chilean's defence team is argu- ing that his continued detention was not in accordance with the law because he could satisfy the court-imposed bail conditions, but was being prevented from doing so by the court registry's policy of not accepting large amounts of cash. Earlier yesterday, Chang-Ra- jii's lawyers filed a Constitu- tional application against the Minster for Justice, Culture and Local Government, the At- torney General, the Director General of the Courts and the Director General of the Maltese Criminal Courts and Tribunals, demanding his immediate re- lease. Yesterday's application, filed by lawyers Stefano Filletti and Stephen Tonna Lowell, ex- plained how the Chilean had initially been arraigned and granted bail under a number of conditions which included a deposit of €2,000. Following an application by the Attorney General, asking for an amend- ment of the surprisingly anae- mic bail conditions, the Crimi- nal Court had increased the man's bail deposit by €98,000. The lawyers state that their client is "in a position to meet this condition," but had been informed by representatives of the Registrar of Courts that the Courts' policy was that sums of cash of €11,000 and over would not be accepted for security reasons and due to anti-money laundering rules. Nor could he pay by bank draft since banks would likewise find objections due to money laundering regu- lations. "As a consequence of this ar- bitrary decision, applicant is currently still being unlawfully detained," the Constitutional application reads. Last week, Chang-Rajii had filed an application before the Criminal Court request- ing it vary the bail deposit to an amount acceptable by the Registrar of Courts or alterna - tively, to order the Registrar of Courts to allow him to deposit the money, but this request was rejected on 14 December, the court also citing the possibility of money laundering as the rea- son for its refusal. The day after the Criminal Court turned down his request, Chang-Rajii's lawyers had filed an urgent application before the Court of Magistrates, al- leging unlawful and arbitrary detention. But in its decision delivered from chambers on the same day, the Court of Magis- trates also rejected that claim, saying that the position adopted by the registrar was "not only morally correct, but ... a posi- tion based on the respect that the relevant authorities need to give to the anti-money launder- ing rules and regulations." It had been the court of Mag- istrate's opinion that the busi- nessman was being held legally and that it was Chang-Rajii's responsibility to fulfil his bail conditions in accordance with the law. The argument put for- ward by the applicant, that the Registrar of Courts must ac- cept the bail bond in cash, af- ter which it could investigate the provenance of those funds "does not hold ground," it had held. Yesterday morning's court ap- plication asks the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Consti- tutional jurisdiction to declare Chang-Rajii's continued arrest to be a violation of the man's hu- man rights and to order his im- mediate release from custody. Court puts emphasis on mercy as Labour Party club thieves given probation MAT THEW AGIUS A Gozo court has emphasised the importance of mercy as an aspect of justice in its judgment against two men who robbed Sannat's Labour Party Club in 2015. Silvio Pace, 46, from Ham- run, was charged together with 41-year-old Libyan Bashir Abu Gawem Al-Hariri¬, from Santa Venera, with having committed aggravated theft from the La- bour Party club in Sannat, Gozo and subsequently handling the goods stolen, in March 2015. The pair were also charged with damaging private property. Pace and Al-Hariri also faced a separate charge of receiving items stolen from a store room in a field in Kercem and were additionally accused of relaps- ing. Pace alone was further charged with breaching bail conditions and a probation order that had been imposed for a previous of- fence. The men pleaded guilty to the charges. In a sentence emphasising the judiciary's role as rehabilita- tors of offenders, magistrate Joe Mifsud, presiding the Court of Magistrates in Gozo yesterday noted the accused had since mended their ways and quoted from homilies delivered in re- cent months by Pope Francis and Archbishop Charles Sciclu- na, urging humility and mercy. In the circumstances, a cus- todial sentence was not ideal, magistrate Mifsud observed, as he placed the men on probation for three years each. "The court is of the opinion that [probation should be imposed] with the aim that the accused continue down the right path and recog- nise that they are not to repeat their past mistakes." Law yers Angie Muscat, Franco Debono and Joseph Grech were defence counsel. Two men were charged with having committed aggravated theft from the Labour Party club in Sannat, Gozo