Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/963162
News 3 maltatoday SUNDAY 8 APRIL 2018 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "The policemen who interro- gated me told me, 'We are friends of the bank', and they even pres- sured me to apologise to the bank executives they had brought to the police station," she was quot- ed as saying. Efimova is currently facing two sets of criminal proceedings in Malta. She has been accused by the bank of defrauding it of roughly €2,000 in one case, and by the police of having made false accusations against Superinten- dent Denis Theuma, inspector Lara Butters and Ferris, who in- terrogated her, in another. She is the subject of two EAWs (European arrest warrant) issued by the Maltese courts after failing to appear for court sittings since she left the island. Efimova was reported to have fled the country last summer, but she turned herself in to Greek police last month allegedly after receiving a phone-call informing her that her former boss at Pila- tus Bank would soon be arrested. Pilatus chairman Ali Sadr Hasheminejad was arrested on the same day that Efimova turned herself in. Asked whether he denied claims by Efimova that Pilatus Bank officials were present dur- ing her interrogation, lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Andrew Borg Cardona, acting on Ferris's behalf, said that "to the best of his knowledge, no bank officials were ever present during any in- terrogation". "He always carried out his du- ties within the parameters of the law," the lawyers said of the police investigator who later worked for the Financial Intelligence Analy- sis Unit before being sacked after June 2017. Ferris is claiming un- fair dismissal and has also peti- tioned the Maltese government for whistleblower status, but his request has been denied. Efimova's claims were also de- nied by the police in a statement last week. The Russian national was named last year as one of the sources behind allegations by the late Daphne Caruana Gali- zia, that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's wife Michelle was the ultimate beneficial owner of the Panamanian company Egrant, and that the company had re- ceived a payment of over $1 mil- lion from a company belonging to Leyla Aliyev, daughter of Azer- baijan president Ilham Aliyev. In the interview with Efimova, it was said that one of the police officers who interrogated her had since left the police force and was willing to go to Greece to testify in her favour. Questioned on whether in this case Efimova was referring to Ferris and whether he had pledged to testify in her favour, his lawyers said he would testify to the truth. "This question should be ad- dressed to her rather than to him," they said. "As far as he is concerned, Jonathan Ferris will never testify in favour or against anyone. If requested by compe- tent authorities and according to law, he will testify to the truth, without fear or favour." Ferris's lawyers were also asked whether Efimova was right to make claims of mistreatment against him and his colleagues. "Certainly not. Reading the Po- lice Internal affairs report and the Police Board reports will give you a clear and comprehensive answer in this regard. I trust your paper can be given access to these as it had similar access to similar police internal affairs reports in the past," they said. On whether the police were right to initiate proceedings against Efimova as a result of the claims, Ferris's lawyers "reiter- ated that all reports should be properly and meticulously inves- tigated, irrespective of the parties involved". "Contrast this with how the FIAU reports involving Keith Schembri, Adrian Hillman, Bri- an Tonna and Minister Konrad Mizzi have been 'handled'." Compliance visits at Pi- latus Bank by the FIAU in 2016 prompted a request by the then- director Manfred Galdes to the police chief to investigate the bank. But the Commissioner for Police Michael Cassar resigned two weeks later. Pilatus whistleblower claimed police were 'friends of the bank' CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 It is unclear whether the minister will consider a moratorium on the applications for fuel service station permits pending the review. Additionally, he has to contend with the competing interests of the Planning Authority itself, which falls under the purview of the roads min- ister Ian Borg. The new rules had allowed relo- cation of petrol stations situated in urban areas, deemed to be unsafe, to ODZ areas where these can occupy 3,000sq.m of land. However, they also allow brand new petrol stations inside, adjacent or opposite to industrial areas, areas used for storage and so called areas of containment, which tend to be transitional areas between industrial zones and the countryside. In a small island like Malta, the countryside bleeds into urban cen- tres as the only obvious form of de- marcation between one village and the other. But mega fuel service stations are changing this, taking up enormous footprints in stretches of road that demarcate Maltese villages. Until recently the PA was consid- ering several applications for ODZ fuel service stations including one on Mdina Road in Attard (see page 8), Triq Burmarrad in St Paul's Bay next to a newly-approved one, and Qormi Road in Luqa. In the protest held at the PA meet- ing, demonstrators asked why such a small island as Malta would need so many fuel stations. There are cur- rently 14 applications for "massive so-called petrol stations" which, if approved, would take up an area more than five times the size of the Floriana granaries. "We believe that destroying all this natural and agricultural land for me- ga complexes that include petrol sta- tions, in a country that is by far the most built-up country in the EU, is pure madness and should be halted immediately," the two NGOs said in a statement. They added that the claims that the 2015 Fuel Stations Policy was aimed at removing petrol stations from ur- ban areas was just "a lame excuse to justify the onslaught on Malta's en- vironment and quality of life that is making a few fat cats richer". The NGOs also accused the major- ity of the board members of ignoring objections to the projects they were approving. The ERA is opposing the Luqa application, saying it takes up 3,000sq.m of agricultural land and creates a precedent for other devel- opments along Qormi road. The application originally envi- sioned a brand new petrol station but at a later stage it was changed to include the relocation of the petrol station on Savoy Hill in Sliema. The petrol station will include a service station, a small shop, a tyre service garage, VRT Garage, ATM, and car wash facilities. Three fuel stations exist in the ra- dius of 1.2km in the vicinity of the proposed fuel station. The policy regulating fuel pumps only bans new petrol stations within a distance of a 500m radius of existing ones. ERA proposes footprint reduction