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Man, 75, charged with ‘email threat’ petitions court for bail
Defence team says court’s decision to deny whistleblower Joseph Borg bail ‘sends the wrong message to the public against those who report shortcomings by public officials’.
27 November 2012, 12:00am
Miriam Dalli
Miriam Dalli
3 min read
READ MORE A businessman's lone fight for his rights
The defence counsel of a 75-year-old businessman who was charged with blackmailing the head of the government's internal audit department has filed an urgent writ requesting bail to be granted to Joseph Borg.
Magistrate Consuelo Scerri-Herrera on Saturday remanded Joseph Borg in custody after he was charged with threatening the beleaguered director-general of the Internal Audit and Investigations Department, Rita Schembri.
Borg is accused of threatening Schembri by an email on 19 November, that he would report her to the EU's anti-fraud office (OLAF) if she failed to pay monies she owes to sub-lessees who are in litigation with her because of a breach of her lease agreement on Borg's restaurant.
Borg did not deny sending an email reporting Schembri to OLAF. Borg, who pleaded not guilty, was denied bail and remanded in custody in Corradino Correctional Facility after prosecuting police inspector Chris Pullicino said he feared Borg would contaminate evidence.
However, defence lawyer Edward Debono has argued that the prosecution's argument did not hold since the email was now in the prosecution's hands.
According to the petition, Borg's "alleged threat" to report her was not a criminal act since Schembri is a public official. "He was only going to carry out his duty as a citizen to report an alleged breach of the code of ethics to the concerned authorities," the lawyer argued.
According to the petition, as a whistleblower, Borg is protected by the law to receive bail. "Moreover, the court's decision to deny bail sends the wrong message to the public. It gives off the impression that a person who reports shortcomings by a public official would be risking criminal procedures himself," the lawyer argued.
The petition goes on to state that the court failed to take into consideration Borg's age and insisted that bail is a right.
According to the defence team, the prosecution should have effectively focused on investigating what was being alleged in the email, given Rita Schembri's role in the public service.
On Friday, the Department of Information issued a statement confirming that that Schembri was out on long leave pending an investigation by the Auditor General into reports carried by MaltaToday of her direct involvement in the acquisition of a 60% stake in the Casinò di Venezia - undeclared to the head of the civil service - and of having carried out private meetings related to the bid from her government office.
During the same day, Borg was being questioned by the police over the email after Schembri filed a police report.
On Saturday he was charged with urgency before Magistrate Herrera, whose father had been named and shamed by Joseph Borg himself.
Borg famously blew the whistle on the corruption behind the land-grab scandals of the 1980s perpetrated by the late Labour minister Lorry Sant and his acolyte Pio Camilleri - in 2001 he told a magisterial inquiry that Mr Justice Joseph Herrera - the father of Magistrate Scerri-Herrera - had put undue pressure upon him to reach out-of-court settlements with Camilleri.
Miriam Dalli joined MaltaToday.com.mt in 2010 becoming assistant editor f...
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This is more proof that our courts are still corrupt and are run by politics and favoritism. If there is any shadow of a doubt that there is any sign of conflict of interest between the judge and the accused then the case should be transferred to another judge. That is common sense but it seems that our courts are so corrupt that nobody cares. Why no bail? This not a murder trial and Mr Borg should be entitled to bail. Why do we keep putting up with our court's incompetence? This brings to mind when this particular judge used to rule over cases her brother was defending. Pathetic.
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What a farce....these matters happen only this island, an island of non-democratic rules.
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If this old man, jailed on a flimsy excuse, is not granted bail, it would not be just the law courts that would be the subject of derision, but the whole Administration and Opposition. Power should never be absolute.
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Imgieba skandaluza, pajjiz ta' pulcinelli
Lawrence Covin •
The only wrong thing Mr Borg did was not to report her to OLAF -or whoever- outright. He wasted time warning her. Besides, telling people that they should do things properly or else you report them to competent authorities does not constitute blackmail, nor merit a spell in jail. Being unable to distinguish between a warning and blackmail proves that the law is an ass.
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Why was this Magistrate handed this case in the first place?. It is quite clear that there is a conflict of interest here and makes one assume that the Magistrate is getting back at the accused for involving her late father? He should be granted bail immediately if there are any traces of seriousness left in our Law Courts, which I doubt each day that passes.
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Why was this Magistrate handed this case in the first place?. It is quite clear that there is a conflict of interest here and makes one assume that the Magistrate is getting back at the accused for involving her late father? He should be granted bail immediately if there are any traces of seriousness left in our Law Courts, which I doubt each day that passes.
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Hu zgur li ma tidholx l-Whistle Blowers Act, mela GonziPN irid li kulhadd igib ghajnejn wara widnejh? Din ta Joseph Borg hi biss the tiny tip of the iceberg!
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"Borg is accused of threatening Schembri by an email on 19 November, that he would report her to the EU's anti-fraud office (OLAF) if she failed to pay monies she owes to sub-lessees who are in litigation with her because of a breach of her lease agreement on Borg's restaurant." How is this blackmail? If the monies are actually owed to him, surely reporting this will not amount to blackmail?
