Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/788859
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2017 2 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Opposi- tion leader Simon Busuttil has left little to the imagination in his ac- cusations, jabbing Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to tell the public whether he knows who Egrant's owner is – with Muscat repeatedly denying he is the beneficiary of the Panama company. But Brian Tonna, whose firm has enjoyed a close relationship with the Labour government, has insist- ed in email answers to MaltaToday that he remains the sole owner of Egrant, a company that never trad- ed. "I have already made it very clear that Egrant, purchased by my firm in July 2013, is a shelf company, that is a ready-made company that is available for a client to acquire. It has never had, and does not cur- rently have, any client as ultimate beneficial owner, and it has never been active," Tonna said in an email through his lawyer. A letter he supplied from Mos- sack Fonseca president Ricardo Samaniego, dated 16 February, 2017, reiterates the claim that Egrant was acquired by Tonna through his own firm BTI Manage- ment on 9 August, 2013, remaining its sole ultimate beneficial owner. No powers of attorney were issued to anyone except to Tonna and Cini, Samaniego says in his letter. Egrant is currently in dissolution. "I feel the attention on us has been unfair, and I simply wish to clarify any misconceptions and speculation that has been repeated ad nauseam in the media," Tonna said. Tonna's declaration may not quell the PN's insistence that Egrant was destined as a secret vehicle for Jo- seph Muscat. When Panamagate broke, the Mossack Fonseca leak included documents up to mid- 2015. Nexia's email conversations revealed Mizzi and Schembri's identities. Even if Egrant never traded and direct proof of Muscat's involvement does not exist, the Maltese prime minister remains tainted by the Panama Papers by the presence of his chief of staff and minister in the two companies. Tonna said those instructions that Cini would have relayed to Mossack Fonseca on Egrant via a Skype conversation, never took place. "It is common practice to com- municate via Skype as it is prac- tical and cost-effective. Many practitioners use it. No instruc- tions were ever given to Mossack Fonseca whether by Skype or any other means of communication to change the ultimate beneficial ownership of Egrant," he said. Through his forceful condemna- tions of the Panama scandal, PN leader Simon Busuttil has kept up the fight on Egrant. "Egrant is the company which no one knows to whom it belongs," he has told sup- porters. "We know what 'grant' means and 'E' can easily stand for elections," Busuttil suggested in a wordplay meant to prick people's ears on Labour skulduggery. Last Sunday he insisted in Sliema: "The Prime Minister last week insulted me personally in Parlia- ment because I dared ask him who Egrant belongs to. I will not accept a hand of friendship from a corrupt government, as the offer is a hypo- critical one." Tonna and Cini will not be at- tending tomorrow's hearing with a delegation of the PANA committee in Malta. "As soon as we received the Com- mittee's invitation, we informed them that we will collaborate fully and to the extent possible. How- News Nexia to reply to PANA committee only in writing Outcry over teacher's five-year sentence finds MP's MATTHEW AGIUS CITIZENS and an MP have taken to Facebook calling for justice for a 34-year-old schoolteacher who was jailed for five years this week for running over two elderly people in Attard, causing the death of one of them and grievously injuring the other. Dorianne Camilleri was jailed af- ter being found guilty of the invol- untary homicide of Alfred Zahra, 64 in May 2011 when she was driving along Mdina Road near Rabat on her way home from a day's teaching at a school in Sta Venera, as well as of grievously injuring his sister, Car- mela Zahra, 75 years old at the time. Camilleri had told Magistrate Doreen Clarke that she had been driving at 50 km/h behind another car in traffic when her windscreen was suddenly shattered by an im- pact with a person. After pulling over to the side of the road she had screamed at passersby, asking for help, she said. The accident oc- curred a short distance away from a pelican crossing, the court was told. Social media was alive with decla- rations of sympathy and solidarity with the teacher. By all accounts, Camilleri was unlucky to have also injured the man's sister and thus triggering the higher prison sen- tence, which sparked public outcry and plans for petitions. The leg- islation applying in this case was amended in 2009. In reactions on Facebook, Nation- alist MP Antoine Borg declared his intention to challenge the mini- mum five-year sentence for such cases and to ensure that "common sense prevails". Lawyer Robert Musumeci imme- diately told Borg that – in this case at least – he had his full backing. From the witness stand, Camilleri had said that she had not expected anyone to attempt to cross the road from there. "You do not expect to find pedestrians crossing… that they will emerge from behind a cen- tre strip, from behind a van and you suddenly find them in front of you." The defence had based its case around the contention that the Zahras had been negligent in how they crossed the road, leading to the accused to find herself in an instant, unexpected, unpredictable and in- evitable emergency. But the court, in view of CCTV footage showing the speed of traffic in the area and noting the damage to the car as well as her description of how the accident took place, held that she had "certainly" been travel- ling faster that the 50km/h she had claimed, although she should have still been able to spot the pedestri- ans. All the evidence pointed to the impact with the victims, who smashed the windscreen and ended up on the boot of the car, having been more substantial than what would be expected of a collision at that speed, or of a car that had been stationary moments earlier – as she had also claimed. The court said the evidence in- dicated that the elderly couple had crossed from the pavement and not from the centre strip, as had been claimed and, as she had said that she would never have expect- ed someone to try and cross from there, deduced that the woman had not been keeping a proper lookout. After examining case law on the issues of dangerous driving, neg- ligence, the duties of pedestrians and those of drivers, as well as bear- ing in mind the inconsistencies in the accused's testimony, the Court said that the only possible penalty it could hand down was a custodial sentence. The Court, however also took into consideration Camilleri's clean criminal record and the psychologi- cal suffering she was enduring as a result of the accident and imposed the minimum sentence for invol- untary homicide in which another person was grievously injured – five years. She was also ordered to pay €2,400 in Court expenses. Sentence triggers comparisons with other cases In a near identical case to Camill- eri's which was decided in January 2016, Edward Bonnici from Naxxar had received a suspended sentence and a fine for killing two elderly pedestrians whilst driving at 137 km/h. The court in that case, whilst observing the serious nature of the crime, had said that it was bound to impose the penalties imposed by the law at the time of the incident. In 2010, road menace Maximilian Ciantar had received a 16 month sentence after a drink driving inci- dent in which he had run over and grievously injured two young twin sisters, who had been crossing the road on a zebra crossing in Attard. Last October a man from Paola had been handed an 18-month sen- tence, suspended for four years for Clockwise from left: The Prime Minister 'demoted' Konrad Mizzi and retained Keith Schembri as his chief of staff despite calls for them to be sacked over the Panama Papers scandal Brian Tonna: the Nexia owner insists he is the sole owner of the offshore company Egrant sentence after a drink driving inci- dent in which he had run over and grievously injured two young twin sisters, who had been crossing the road on a zebra crossing in Attard. had been handed an 18-month sen- tence, suspended for four years for Dorianne Camilleri's Facebook profile picture Maximilian Pace, who received a two-year jail-term and had his licence suspended for 10 years after running over twin girls in Attard in 2001, was released after serving 16 months of his sentence and had his driving ban reduced to 16 months. Nexia BT told MaltaToday this letter from Mossack Fonseca confirms that Egrant never traded since its acquisition