Mellieħa hotel CEO, contractor charged over asbestos exposure

A Mellieħa hotel's chief executive officer and two contractors who had worked on a renovation at the resort in 2020 have been charged with 22 violations of health and safety laws over the exposure of employees to asbestos without taking mitigating measures.

Before magistrate Elaine Mercieca on Thursday, Hmadi Abu Rub, 37, from Libya, as the CEO of the Mellieħa Holiday Centre, popularly known as the Danish Village, was charged with failing to take proper precautions and not carrying out risk assessments during the removal of asbestos from the site. Employees of the hotel and those of the contractor were exposed to the deadly substance. 

Contractors Fahad Abdullah, 44, and Mahmoud Hussin, 34, both from Syria, were also charged with breaches of occupational health and safety laws related to the work they were carrying out at the Mellieħa Holiday Centre during its renovation in October last year.

The men were charged by the police on behalf of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority.   

The hotel's CEO was charged with failing to inform employees about the exposure and the related risks, as well as failing to provide them with personal protection equipment, failing to consult with them about the risks they were being exposed to and not carrying out a health and safety assessment required by law.

The contractors were separately charged with failing to avoid danger, failure to inform employees about the exposure, not having a plan for the removal of the asbestos and failing to carry out health examinations of their employees before and after the work. Additional charges of failing to provide their employees with specialised training for the removal of asbestos were also pressed.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Lawyer Timothy Bartolo requested the court's permission to be admitted to the case as parte civile on behalf of two clients who used to work at the hotel and who had been exposed to the carcinogenic material during the project.

Bartolo said his clients had been exposed to asbestos without knowing and had become the victims of the crimes allegedly committed by the accused, he said.

But lawyers Alessandro Lia and Joseph Calleja, defence counsel to the accused, objected to the request, arguing that none of the charges indicated specific persons who could be considered as injured parties.

The lawyers said there was no party who had a direct or indirect interest in this case except the OHSA. There were no injuries in this case so private people could never have an interest in this case, they insisted.

Magistrate Mercieca will decree on Bartolo's request in January.