Updated | Former Sliema mayor Nikki Dimech sentenced to one year in jail

Adds PN statement at 2:56pm

Former Sliema Mayor Nikki Dimech has been sentenced to a year in jail after being found guilty of bribery, on Monday afternoon.

However, Dimech was found not guilty of threatening Police Inspector Angelo Gafa'. MaltaToday is informed that Dimech will be appealing the sentence but with a different legal team.

Dimech is accused of asking for a commission over the salary negotiated with the council's former contracts manager Stephen Buhagiar.

Buhagiar, 43 of Swieqi, claims Dimech solicited him for bribes of 5-10% on the value of his contract. Buhagiar, a former driver of Nationalist MP Robert Arrigo, was unemployed at the time he was tendering for the public contract to be contracts manager for the council.Buhagiar has also claimed that he was sacked from his job post by Dimech after refusing to pay up, while he was left jobless since last March.

Buhagiar's contract was terminated by eight votes to one in the council and later passed on to the tender's run-up Philip Chircop. Later he alleged to Borg Olivier, Said and Bugelli that his contract was terminated because he refused to pay bribes to Nikki Dimech.

Buhagiar also admitted that he told councillors Debono and Cali they would regret their decision, in an altercation he had with them after his contract was terminated.

Gafà issued charges of corruption of a public officer against Dimech using a police citation, but later demanded his urgent arraignment after Dimech released an interview to MaltaToday in which he claimed having admitted to bribery 'under duress' during his interrogation.

The police inspector denied that the arraignment was related to Dimech's comments to the press after being released from arrest, but due to the allegations levelled against him personally.

The one year sentence was handed down by Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit.

In reaction to the sentence handed to Dimech, the Nationalist Party said that it was proved right in kicking out the former Sliema mayor.

The PN said the sentence showed that it was right in dismissing Dimech as soon as he was placed under investigation by the police.

"As soon as the PN dismissed Nikki Dimech, the Labour Party gave him refuge in its media and Dimech went as far as to thank [Labour leader] Joseph Muscat for the opportunity he was giving him to make himself heard, on Labour's television station," the PN recalled.

It added that the PN was attacked by Labour for months on end for having dismissed Dimech. "Today we have confirmed the PN was right and that it had acted with seriousness. Time has shown again, that Labour is populist and is ready to do anything because Labour believes that the end justifies the means."

During a seperate court case, Dimech had confirmed his claim that PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier had called him minutes before a council meeting, asking him to "give preference" to "company A rather than company B."

Asked to clarify this statement, Dimech had said that Borg Olivier asked him to give preference to GreenMT, a waste recycling firm owned by the Small Business Chamber GRTU, rather than GreenPak, for the recycling of waste in Sliema.

Nikki Dimech also confirmed his previous declarations that soon after he had been released from police custody on August 11, 2010 regarding allegations made by the former Sliema council works contractor Stephen Buhagiar, he was surprised that Paul Borg Olivier was the first person to phone him within minutes of leaving the Police headquarters, knowing that he had already given two statements to the police.

Dimech said that Borg Olivier - who was in Gozo that day - had told him that his position was now "politically untenable" and that he had to resign.

Borg Olivier insisted that Dimech goes to the party headquarters and submit his resignation the next day and hand it to his deputy, Jean-Pierre Debono.

Dimech argued with Borg Olivier and refused to resign on the basis that he was simply responding to allegations made by Buhagiar.