Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/786708
8 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2017 News IN ALL LEADING BOOK SHOPS HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY IN MALTA Confiscation of cocaine trafficker's house revoked by court MATTHEW AGIUS THE courts have revoked the con- fiscation of a house belonging to a man convicted of cocaine traffick- ing, ruling that the house's pur- chase had predated the crimes and had clearly not been bought with drug money. Norman and Maria Anna Bezzi- na, husband and wife filed a case against the Commissioner of Po- lice in 2014 requesting the revoca- tion of a court-imposed seizure of the man's assets. Norman Bezzina had been ac- cused in 2001 of possessing and conspiring to traffic cocaine and was later found guilty and jailed, his verdict being confirmed on appeal in February 2014. Maria Anna Bezzina was simply a party to the community of acquests and had not even been charged in con- nection to the case. The confisca- tion of her half of the community of acquests was "entirely illegal and impossible to call legitimate," Bezzina's lawyer, Maria Cardona, had argued. In a separate case, the Court of Criminal Appeal had confirmed the confiscation of all the guilty party's movable and immovable property, in favour of the Govern- ment, as is laid down by the law for drug trafficking cases. Bezzina applied for a revocation of the order confiscating his assets, arguing that the movable and im- movable property seized had been bought long before 2001 and was not in any way linked to drugs. At the time, the plaintiff said, he had never had any dealings with drugs or derived any income from drugs. He argued that the seizure violat- ed his rights under Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights, highlighting similarities to the case Welsh versus United Kingdom, where the UK had been found to have breached the appli- cant's article 7 rights by retroac- tively applying laws that weren't in force at the time of the offence. The matrimonial home had been bought in 1996, although it had been finished after 2001. Some €60,000 of the money used to fin- ish the property had been received by Norman Bezzina in 2004 as compensation for a permanent disability he had suffered whilst working in Canada before 1989. The First Hall of the Civil Court, with judge Anna Felice presiding, noted that the Commissioner of Police was correct in his objection to the claim, on the grounds that article 7 of the European Conven- tion is entirely irrelevant to the case, as the applicants themselves had filed their case on the basis of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. The court noted that jurispru- dence had established the require- ment of a higher level of proof to be brought by those contesting such seizures, "greater than a simple, vague, declaration that the appli- cant had other reserves or resourc- es to live on." However, on the subject of the property, the court noted that no evidence had been submitted to show that Bezzina had been in- volved in drug trafficking in 1992 when the property was acquired. Bezzina had been in employment before he had been caught traf- ficking drugs and had received a lump sum compensation, noted the court, saying it was satisfied that the matrimonial home was not bought using drug money. "It follows that there is no rea- son for the court to doubt that this property was not acquired using earnings or profits from the crimes." The court said the same could be said for the 5 vehicles registered in the accused's name several years before the crimes for which he was convicted took place. The order confiscating the prop- erty was revoked. Drugs found inside prison-bound shoes TIM DIACONO PRISON staff have located drugs concealed inside a pair of shoes before they could be smuggled into prison. In a statement issued yesterday, the Corradino Prison said that prison officials were conducting searches amongst objects that were being transported into the prison when their eyes were drawn to a pair of shoes, that turned out to be concealing 23 packets of three different types of drugs. "This discovery clearly proves that the Corrective Facility is committed to eliminating the smuggling of all types of prohibit- ed and illegal objects into prison," it said. District police were informed of the case, and duty magistrate Charmaine Galea appointed an inquiry into the drug find. Prison staff found 23 packets of drugs concealed inside a pair of shoes PA launches Maghtab planning strategy guidance JEANELLE MIFSUD THE Planning Authority has is- sued for public consultation a new planning strategy guidance for the Magħtab area aimed at addressing the "planning lacu- nas" for the Magħtab area that exist in the Central Malta Local Plan and at improving the envi- ronmental context of the area. With the consultation open un- til 30 March, the proposed guid- ance designates a boundary that encapsulates the predominant committed development areas of Magħtab, the Planning Authority said. These areas, namely ani- mal husbandry, arable farming, residential, industrial and waste management utilities, have been classified as character areas. The Planning Authority added that the proposed policy frame- work identifies specific policy guidance for each of these ar- eas. However, it singles out agri- cultural activity as the priority land use, stating that it should encouraged and sustained. "It is the most important positive con- tributor towards the long term conservation of the wider rural character and context of the ar- ea," the Planning Authority said. "While Magħtab accommo- dates a wide variety of land uses, many of which conf lict with ad- jacent land uses giving rise to a disorganised appearance and a decline in rural quality, this pro- posed policy is seeking to prevent the further development of in- compatible uses in the area while directing further growth to spe- cific character areas," it said. The policy presents an ap- proach which seeks to reach a balance in land use by allowing the consolidation of these char- acter areas through sustainable development, and the protection of the overall rural character and wider rural context of the Maghtab area. The proposed policy also de- lineates the Magħtab residen- tial settlement area on the basis of the predominant cluster of dwellings in the central area of Magħtab with frontages onto Triq il-Kappella ta' Santa Marija up to the Santa Marija Chapel and part of Triq ir-Ramla that form a consolidated settlement streetscape. "To safeguard this residential settlement area, the plan pro- poses the creation of an arable farming buffer area between the animal husbandry area and the residential area to retain an ad- equate buffer between the two land uses," it said. "Within this buffer area, new animal farming is restricted to allow for an appro- priate buffer between residences and farms to limit impacts." The consideration of firework factories and fuel service sta- tions is not supported within the Magħtab Planning Strategy Area, in the interest of protecting the delineated residential settlement and the rural character, the Plan- ning Authority added.