Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/806571
10 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 APRIL 2017 News PANA committee wants to grill Schembri during May hearing Privacy watchdog orders removal of Caruana Galizia blogpost MIRIAM DALLI THE European Parliament's com- mittee investigating the Panama Papers leaks has requested the intervention of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in an attempt to convince his chief of staff, Keith Schembri, to appear before a pub- lic hearing in Strasbourg. Schembri, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, has already declined an invitation to appear before the committee during a visit to Malta in March, on the basis that he was not an elected official and that he holds "a position of trust in service of the government". Now Muscat is being asked to use his "authority" in forcing Schembri to appear before the PANA committee. "I would like to invite you to use your authority to ask him to coop- erate with the PANA Committee by accepting an invitation to ap- pear to a public hearing in Stras- bourg on 18 May," chairman Wer- ner Langer, a German MEP from the European People's Party, said in a letter addressed to Muscat. Langer, president of the 'PANA' committee of inquiry into money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion, reminded Muscat that Schembri had refused to meet the committee in Malta, with the let- ter of refusal being delivered "on the street, by a post officer" shortly before the scheduled meeting. Langer's letter was published by Alternattiva Demokratika, with chairperson Arnold Cassola ar- guing that Schembri should stop "running away" from MEPs. "This is no April Fools' joke. It is shameful that the parliamen- tary investigative committee has to appeal to the Prime Minister to get him to force Schembri to go. People who have nothing to hide should not run away, as Keith Schembri has been doing for over a year," Cassola said. In the leaks of financial data from law firm Mossack Fonseca, it emerged that Schembri had set up an offshore trust in New Zealand in 2015, linked to a Panama com- pany. According to the Mossack Fonseca documents, Schembri had already back in January 2011 used a Spanish adviser to set up another British Virgin Islands company, Colson Services Ltd, for his private business. In turning down the PANA com- mittee's invitation last month, Schembri published the audit car- ried out by Crowe Horwath of his Panamanian company Tillgate Inc and Haast Trust. In its report, audit firm Crowe Horwath said that the consolidat- ed financial statements running from July 2015 to June 2016 con- firmed that no trading activities were undertaken and that Tillgate Inc held no bank accounts. During the Panama Papers rev- elations it also emerged that Nexia BT was in the process of opening a bank account in Dubai, when FPB Bank in Panama had refused to open an account. Schembri has also challenged the PANA committee's legal standing, after EU member states were ad- vised by the Council of Ministers' legal service that ministers could be in a position to refuse partici- pation in the Panama Papers com- mittee. The legal service said MEPs could not assume themselves the power of the European Commis- sion by asking member states on how they have enforced taxation rules, unless they had clear allega- tions of contraventions or proof of maladministration. In their conclusions, the legal service told EU governments that member states must be clearly shown what the inquiry's factual and legal elements are, so that they can determine whether they are even obliged to participate. "Were this not the case, Member States and the Council may validly refuse participation so that their rights and interests are preserved." The legal service said MEPs' power of political control was laid down in the Treaty of the Europe- an Union but that this "cannot be- come a general clause of account- ability of Member States before the Parliament." "The purpose of a committee of inquiry cannot be to substitute it- self for the Commission by asking Member States to provide it with information on the transposition and implementation of Union acts, unless this request is duly founded through a link with alleged contra- ventions or facts of maladminis- tration in the application of these acts of Union law." THE Malta Independent column- ist Daphne Caruana Galizia could be fined €2,500 by the Data Protec- tion Commission, in a privacy com- plaint brought against her by Keith Schembri, the prime minister's chief of staff. The fine was issued with respect to a post on her personal blog, en- titled 'Prime Minister's chief of staff has inoperable tumour: gov- ernment should release statement', with reference to medical treatment Schembri was undergoing at the time. The fine comes with a daily penal- ty of €250 for each day she keeps the blog post uploaded on her website. In a letter dated 27 March, the IDPC ordered Caruana Galizia to remove the blogpost, saying it vio- lated the data protection rights of the complainant, who had been on sick leave and treated for a medi- cal ailment. At the time, reports of a terminal disease had been vehe- mently denied by his aides. The IDPC called on Caruana Gali- zia to remove the post within three days from receipt and that failure to do so would lead to a fine of €2,500 and a daily fine of €250 until the vio- lation persists. COURT NOTICE The Registrar, Civil Courts and Tribunals notifies that the First Hall of the Civil Court ordered the sale by Judicial Auction of the following property to be held in the corridors of the Courts of Justice, Republic Street, Valletta. Date Time Judicial Sale No Property 4th April 2017 11.00am 2/17 Cordina Maria Dolores ID 388949 M vs Mangion George et. EGL Apartment situated on the first floor above street level, including its relative airspace of the said apartment and its facade overlooking in Triq il- Kbira, Ħal Qormi, which maisonette has access from common stairs integrally part of the same maisonette which abuts in Triq il-Kbira, Ħal Qormi and officially numbered two hundred and twelve (212) and known as 'Doris House' and part overlying the garage numbered two hundred and thirteen (213) valued at one hundred and five thousand euro (€105,000). 6th April 2017 10.30am 30/14 Gustav Baldacchino. ID116277M vs Gordon Agius et. ID116277M JGL Elevated ground floor maisonette underlying a block of apartments. The property is unnumbered and named 'Immersion' in Triq il- Gladjoli,Madliena, limits of Swieqi subject to a perpetual and annual ground rent valued at two hundred and seventy five thousand Euros (€275,000) Maisonette with its own airspace in the first and second floor overlying third party property numbered three (3) named 'Gordon House', in Triq il- Bard (gia Triq il- Gdida in Triq Pinto), Hal Qormi, subject to an annual and perpetual ground rent of fourty six Euro and fifty nine cents only (€46.59) valued at two hundred thousand Euro (€200,000) 6th April 2017 11.00am 44/14 Spinola Developments Co.Ltd. C331 vs Luciano Bellia. Passport no Y242027 EGL The temporary utile domain time remaining from the original one hundred and fifty (150) years commenced from nineteen (19) May one thousand nine hundred and four sixty (1964) is two euro and thirty three cents (€ 2.33) on the flat and forty-six cents (€0.46) on the parking space. The apartment is situated on the first floor off the roa d in Portomaso Avenue to Spinola Road, St. Julians and internally marked number 1861 situated on the first floor +1, apartment sixty one (61) in eighteenth block (18), overlying property of Spinola Development Company Limited or her successors in title, together with common areas, service roads and access to serve the different units within the complex. The apartment has common lifts with direct access to the internal parking space. The parking space numbered 2241 in the –minus (-2) level with right of access valued at million and fifty thousand euro (€1,005,000). 6th April 2017 11.30am 16/16 Karl Borg et. ID 3699779 M vs Mario Mifsud et. ID 224163M EGL A garage internally marked number seventeen (17), forming part from a complex of garages, without officially number and named 'Golden Lion Garages', in Saint Paul's Alley, abuts in Triq San Ġużepp, Ħamrun. Including with the same is one of thirty one (31) undivided share of the drive in and all the other parts, which are in common between the garages in same complex of garages. This garage is bounded on the North by property of Mario and Emily spouses Aquilina or their successors in title, from the East by the said common 'drive in' and from the south by property of Joseph Cutajar or their successors in title. This garage is exempt from payment of its rate of annual and perpetual ground rent and is underlying third party properties with all its rights and appurtenances valued at eighteen thousand euro (€18,000). 27th April 2017 10.30am 65/14 Gerald Buhagiar ID 763359M vs Aaron Schembri ID 101584M JGL Il-fond bin-numru mija u tnejn (102) bl-isem 'Whistle' fi Triq Santa Marija, f'Ħal Tarxien inkluż l-arja tagħha suġġett għaċ-ċens annwu u perpetwu ta' erbgħa ewro u sitta u sittin ċentezmu (€4.66) stmat li jiswa mija u ħamsin elf ewro (€150,000). 27th April 2017 11.00am 40/16 APS bank Limited C 2192 vs Joseph Vella ID 442852M AZ Three plots numbered seven (7), eight (8) and nine (9) and the developed building on them in a state of shell form and the airspace in Triq is- Siniskalk, Żejtun. The building is built on three floors and a basement in a residential area and borders an asphalted road. The building consists of ten (10) basement garages, two (2) maisonettes and one apartment (1) on the ground floor, three (3) apartments in the first floor, three (3) other apartments on the second floor and two (2) penthouses. From this building it is excluded the maisonette without number in the ground floor of the building block numbered six (6) and a garage internally marked number six (6) in the same block as described in the acts of a waiver dated 9 June 2010 and 16 July 2015. The property is free and unencumbered estimated to cost one million Euro (€ 1,000,000). Further details can be obtained from the website: http://www.justiceservices.gov.mt/courtservices/JudicialSales/search.aspx The bidders taking part in the auction must present their identity card. Rudolph Marmara' For the Registrar of Civil Courts and Tribunals Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff Keith Schembri