Smuggling charges hanging on Rosso murder suspect’s head

The police are expected to arraign a man who stands charged with the 2005 murder of Marsaxlokk man Albert Brian Rosso, over the interception of a fishing vessel with thousands of undeclared cigarettes on board.

The man, Italian national Piero di Bartolo, 40 of Birzebbugia, is to be charged in court when a letter to prosecute from the Customs Department is handed over to the police.

On 19 August, the Armed Forces of Malta intercepted Di Bartolo’s fishing vessel three nautical miles from the coast. Army personnel boarded the vessel where they found thousands of cigarette packs being smuggled to Malta.

A magisterial inquiry was held and police investigations conducted, the police force confirmed with MaltaToday. The vessel is still being held by the Customs Department.

The police did not deny that the boat belongs or was manned by Di Bartolo. “Letter to prosecute from Customs is awaited and the person responsible will be charged in court soon after,” a spokesperson told this newspaper.

Di Bartolo’s trial by jury for the 2005 murder of Albert Brian Rosso was postponed indefinitely back in February 2015 when the court upheld a last-minute application by the Attorney General requesting that a joint trial by jury of Di Bartolo and the co-accused, Anthony Bugeja be held.

Di Bartolo’s lawyer protested that the inordinate delay in starting the trial was breaching the accused’s right to a hearing within a reasonable time. The lawyer said the request was a strategic move on the part of the AG who had realised, after seven years of campaigning, six before the Constitutional Court, for the two cases to be heard separately, that it would be favourable for the prosecution’s case for them to be heard together. 

Lawyer Roberto Montalto said the delays suffered were solely attributable to “the haphazard management of the case by the prosecutor”, pointing out that the compilation of evidence against Di Bartolo was completed in just over two years and the bill of indictment had been tabled over seven years ago.

Both Di Bartolo and Bugeja are pleading not guilty to the 2005 murder of Albert Brian Rosso.

They were previously scheduled to undergo two separate jury trials. Di Bartolo faces charges of complicity in Rosso’s murder, disposing of a body and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

Rosso went missing in October 2005. His body was never found. Investigators believe that Rosso was murdered in a Birzebbuga garage and that his body was dumped at sea.