Defence counsel says bribe suspect ‘paraded for political exigencies’

The defence counsel to former Mimcol chief executive Mario Mizzi, who today stood charged with attempted bribery in the superyachts privatisation, accused police investigators of 'wheeling in suspects' to court to satisfy 'political exigencies'.

The compilation of evidence against Mizzi, who stands charged with offering a bribe in his capacity as a public official, started this morning.

Lawyer Joseph Giglio - who appeared for the former Mimcol chief who stands charged with soliciting a bribe during the superyachts privatisation - hit out at Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar for admitting he was accusing Mizzi on the basis of his interpretation of emails Mizzi exchanged with a UK expert contracted by the Privatisation Unit's adjudicating board.

Giglio shouted in Magistrate Antonio Mizzi's courtroom and ripped out an email from a thick file he held, and confronted Cassar to explain if he really understood the language and meaning of the content.

"I bet you think we only know about balaclavas," Giglio sarcastically remarked, after challenging the police superintendent to substantiate how he had accused Mizzi on the basis of a downgrading of a bidder's technical competences having been deliberate rather than reasoned.

The lawyer referred to the UK expert Sue Hall, whom Cassar had interrogated in the UK in 2010, over her emails to Mizzi during the adjudicating process.

According to Cassar, it was odd that Sue Hall had originally allotted a 71% score to Super-Yachts Consortium (SYC) and subsequently downgraded them to 50% and then to 48%.

Cassar said that SYC had originally tendered as a consortium together with French company Couach, but Couach later fell into receivership and was subsequently taken over as a whole concern by CMC.

He said that he was surprised that notwithstanding CMC's full take-over, "Sue Hall had downgraded her previous score to SYC's bid to 50%, and went further to push the bid out by a further downgrade to 48%, when the threshold to keep bidders in play was 50%."

Cassar quoted from an email sent by Mario Mizzi to Sue Hall, in which he stated that a 50% score would keep the bidders in play and oblige government to initiate talks with them.

According to Cassar, "Hall believed that the Maltese authorities were not interested in doing business with SYC."

The emails are pivotal to the police investigations who initiated their enquires following a question raised in parliament in 2009 by Opposition leader Joseph Muscat who asked the Prime Minister if he knew of any bribery during the superyachts privatisation process.

The case was immediately referred to the Commissioner of Police and it transpired that an allegation had reached the secretariat at the Prime Minister's Office, where marine surveyor Paul Cardona as part of the SYC consortium that Mizzi had told him: "if you think of me, I will be able to help you."

That day Cardona had gone to the Prime Minister's Office to complain about the 'unreasonable' treatment his consortium was receiving from the adjudicating board despite it being shortlisted and the offer being considerably higher than their competitors.

The matter was followed up by Leonard Callus at OPM who promptly informed finance minister Tonio Fenech about the allegation.

An internal investigation was carried out and no evidence was found to sustain the allegation.

Police were called in after the parliamentary question and interrogated Mario Mizzi three times between May and June 2010, and charges were issued last September, five days after Labour MP Gino Cauchi tabled a parliamentary question to home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici about the investigations.

Lawyer Joseph Giglio - who insisted with Magistrate Mizzi that he had no intention of seeing his client paraded for "someone's political exigencies" - stressed that he was determined to push for a swift hearing and go for an "immediate acquittal."

He said that contrary to what Supt. Michael Cassar had alleged, "there was no attempt by Mario Mizzi to ask for any bribe, or influence SYC's downgrading during the adjudicating process."

Giglio explained that Couach had fallen into receivership because they were faced by a multi-million euro judgement against them, and were taken over by CMC.

"This means that Sue Hall could have never kept her original assessment of 71% of the consortium when Couach - still a concern - was taken over by CMC," Giglio said, adding that the 50% re-evaluation reflected that change, irrespective of the fact that Couach remained what it was but with different owners.

The subsequent downgrade to 48% which disqualified SYC from the bid came as a result of Mario Mizzi doing his job, the lawyer said.

Sue Hall had pointed out that she had been "tough" in her assessment in one of her emails, and even stressed that SYC "hardly demonstrate technical competence."

Giglio argued that there was nothing suspicious at any given moment, and Mizzi did his job by pointing out that the 50% re-evaluation score would still keep the consortium in play.

The lawyer then produced an email sent by Antoinette Borg, a Mimcol officer and which was copied to a number of other Mimcol officials and members of the adjudicating board, including Mimcol Chairman Ivan Falzon, whereby Sue Hall was 'invited' to take a definite decision regarding SYC.

That email led to Sue Hall definitely downgrading SYC to 48% sending them below the threshold for negotiations.

The sitting ended with Supt. Cassar calling on Joseph Giglio not to attempt to ridicule him, and stated that witnesses still have to be summoned.

Sue Hall is to be summoned from the UK with the police bearing all her expenses, while the next sitting will be held on March 7 at 2pm.