Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/898252
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2017 News 8 MATTHEW AGIUS THE lawyer representing the PN in a Constitutional case filed by the Nationalist Party against the electoral commission has accused the commission of act- ing unconstitutionally, as both investigator and judge, when in- vestigating breaches of the party financing law. Electoral Commission repre- sentative Ray Zammit took the witness stand earlier yesterday, telling judge Joseph Zammit MacKeon how he had accepted advice from the commission's lawyer, Professor Ian Refalo, that it was not good practice for the electoral commission to both in- vestigate and decide on matters. The case was filed against the Labour administration which introduced a law regulating the way political parties are funded so as to reduce the potential for abuse. The electoral commis- sion, under the party financing law, is empowered to investigate alleged breaches of the party fi- nancing law, Should any wrong- doing be found, the commis- sion may impose a fine of up to €50,000 on the party at fault. The PN, through lawyer Jason Azzopardi, is arguing that this is in breach of the Constitution and the fundamental right to a fair hearing, due to the fact that the commission was acting as both prosecutor and judge. Zammit said he had agreed with the party financing law, but insisted that it was a mistake for the law to place the onus on the commission to declare when breaches have taken place be- cause the law regulating general elections does not provide judi- cial powers to the commission. Zammit continued by ex- plaining how he expressed his reservations to lawyer Franco Debono, who was tasked with overseeing that the party financ- ing law is properly implemented by the electoral commission. The witness said that since the introduction of the party financing law, the electoral commission had dealt with two complaints. The first one from Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) against the use of the Girgenti palace by the Labour Party (PL) parliamentary group. The sec- ond complaint was filed by the PL against the PN for allegedly breaching party financing laws in accepting money from Silvio Debono's DB group. It has been alleged that in an effort to skirt party financing rules, a subsidiary company of DB group, which supplies cater- ing services to airlines, had paid €70,000 in donations to the PN through its media company, Me- dia.link under the guise of ad- vertising. The PN deny the alle- gations. DB Group had asked the PN to refund the donations after former PN leader Simon Busut- til, at the time Leader of the Op- position, had shone a spotlight on the contract between DB and the government, over the trans- fer of former Institute of Tour- ism Studies land at St George's Bay. In his testimony, Ray Zam- mit said that because of the ad- vice received about being pros- ecutor and judge, the electoral commission had felt the need to set up a sub-committee that would compile the evidence. The sub-committee was made up of a former judge, Geof- frey Valenzia and an auditor. The Electoral Commission was to make the final deci- sion. The PL and PN sides of the electoral commission could not agree on the auditor. However, the auditor was even- tually appointed after a vote took place within the commission. In April of this year, Ray Zammit, Victor Scerri, Joseph Zammit Maempel and Mario Callus, in their capacity as electoral com- mission representatives wrote to the President where they ex- pressed their concerns that they were in breach of the Constitu- tion. Scerri and Zammit Maempel also testified yesterday and cor- roborated Zammit's account. The Dean of the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta, Prof. Kevin Aquilina and Con- stitutional lawyer Tonio Borg both testified to confirm that they expressed their opinions on the matter via publications on newspapers, where they com- mented that the law was uncon- stitutional. Lawyer Jason Azzopardi is rep- resenting the PN while Professor Ian Refalo is representing the Electoral Commission. PN accuses electoral commission of acting as investigator and judge in party financing cases MATTHEW VELLA ONE of Malta's best known authors, Alex Vella Gera, has denounced claims by alleged members of the Civil Society Network that his National Book Prize award for Trojan was the result of subornation by Mark Camilleri, the chairman of the National Book Council. Judges from the adjudicating panel and Vella Gera's publisher rushed to decry the accusations on Facebook. In a post, Vella Gera said that CSN activists on "private mes- sages and Facebook threads" had suggested his prize award was influenced by Camilleri. The people were not identi- fied. "Since I criticised the presence of Manuel Delia as a speaker during the first CSN protest, CSN activists accused me of hypocrisy for not having spoken up over the problematic posi- tion of Camilleri as chair of the National Book Council," Vella Gera said. "These activists are claiming the award for Trojan was cor- rupted. It's a serious accusation and I ask anyone with evidence to speak to me, in totally good faith. I want to know, genuinely, who was involved, perhaps un- knowingly in corruption, and if true I will take immediate ac- tion. I'm not bluffing. But the evidence has to be clear, not hearsay," Vella Gera said. Vella Gera had snubbed the ceremony for the award of his book prize at the Prime Minis- ter's office at Castille in protest at the government's scandals. Two judges from the adjudi- cating panel have so far denied the claims. Prof. Claire Vassallo of the University of Malta said she "could attest to the fact that there was no influence on the judges whatsoever. I can also say that this is the case each and every time I have accepted to be judge for the National Book Council – both before and dur- ing Mark Camillieri's term of office." Another adjudicator, Andrei Vella Laurenti, said he was dis- appointed at the attack on the judges' integrity. "Their accusations are to- tally unfounded. Their hollow rants are aimed to discredit us as judges and to have the peo- ple believe that the current chairman of the council, Mark Camilleri, is a Labour lackey. I understand that to some peo- ple his position might be prob- lematic but I believe that this is not the right context to discuss such an issue." Vella Laurenti said Camilleri never influences their work as judges, and that the jury dis- cussed the results openly with him. "Vella Gera took the prize be- cause he is a brilliant author. His book satisfied all the criteria. No more, no less. The implications put forth by some members of the CSN are preposterous…. Whoever is behind this fabrica- tion should check the facts be- fore lashing out in the name of freedom of expression." Vella Gera's publisher, Joe Mizzi of Klabb Kotba Maltin, was equally irked by the alle- gations. "It's a serious accusa- tion and I ask anyone spreading these rumours for a clarifica- tion. As a publisher and citizen, I am not ready to be tarnished by these accusations and I have every right to defend KKM's integrity as a publishing house and business." Before his appointment as chairman in 2013, Mark Camill- eri had been tried in a criminal court on charges of obscen- ity together with Vella Gera for publishing a short story by the author. Both were acquitted. The two were later accorded a Republic Day honour for their role in advancing the cause of freedom of expression, but Vella Gera refused the award. The Civil Society Network has so far organised three suc- cessful protests in the wake of the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, in which they are calling for the resignation of the Commission- er of Police and the Attorney General. Book prize judges rush to denounce claims of 'corruption' in Vella Gera award A storm in the Facebook teacup breaks out after bestselling Maltese author Alex Vella Gera denounces claims of corruption by unnamed Civil Society Network activists Alex Vella Gera is one of Malta's best-known authors