Looking back at 2015: Inside the law courts

Unsolved Murders

54-year-old Raymond Caruana, involved in the alleged bribery of Judge Ray Pace, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in his car near a San Blas farmhouse last March. Police suspect an assault rifle to have been used in the killing, and are investigating the possibility that the weapon had also been used in other, similar, murders last year.

In July the police began investigating the suspected homicide of 72-year old Danish grandmother Vera Bodil Engelbrecht Holm, whose lifeless and unclothed body was discovered, face down in a pool of water in Marsalforn. The woman had last been seen alive three weeks before. Police are treating the case as murder after forensic experts established that the woman, who had arrived on holiday with her son-in-law, his brother and her two grandchildren, had likely been strangled.

October saw the legal fraternity shocked to the core after lawyer Carmel Chircop, was shot four times in a Birkirkara garage complex. Investigations into the murder are ongoing.

Trials by jury

Romanian man Antonel Dobre was handed a seven-year sentence in March after a jury found him guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm which caused the death of Sudanese man Osama Al Shazliay Saleh in 2012. Dobre had thrown a punch at the man, who fell to the kerb, suffering fatal head injuries. Dobre’s lawyers have since filed an appeal, arguing that in his closing address, the judge had glossed over the defence’s claim that he had acted in self-defence

In October, Matthew Mizzi was jailed for six and a half years after he was found guilty of complicity in the 2009 hold-up of the Seven Mobile outlet in Psaila Street. A shopkeeper had suffered gunshot wounds in the attack. The armed robber, Jonathan Coleiro, had previously been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment after he had admitted the accusations to avoid a trial by jury.

Murderer Nizar El Gadi was handed the harshest possible sentence under Maltese criminal law, that of imprisonment for life with periods of solitary confinement, after a jury found him guilty of murdering his former wife, lawyer Margaret Mifsud. Mifsud was asphyxiated in her car at Bahar ic-Caghaq on the night of the 18th April 2012 on her way home from a dinner with colleagues in Xemxija. Jurors delivered an 8-1 guilty verdict after a four-hour deliberation, which came at the end of the three-week trial in November.

Marsaxlokk monti hawker Allan Galea was sentenced to six years imprisonment in December after a jury found him guilty of the homicide of loan shark Anthony Borg, known as il-Bona. Galea had stabbed Borg, who was holding a pistol at the time, to death in Marsaxlokk village square in 2010. For the crime of excusable homicide and that of carrying a sharp or pointed object without the necessary licence, Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi sentenced Galea to six years in prison. Galea was facing a possible life sentence had he been convicted of wilful homicide without the excuse of excess in self-defence.

Dishonesty Inc.

In January, former Enemalta technician Richard Gauci was jailed for two-and-a-half years and fined €10,000 after he pleaded guilty to having tampered with smart meters in 2014.

In a similar case, also in January, Marvin Cucciardi from Zurrieq, Abraham Muscat from Zabbar and Lewis Sant from Dingli, were charged with damaging electricity meters, threatening a third party, accepting bribes and unlawful exaction by virtue of their position. Muscat and Sant were remanded in custody due to fears of tampering with evidence and allegations of threatening a prosecution witness. Cucciardi was granted bail after the court was told that all evidence related to his case had been collected. 

A month later, in February, a magistrate held that there was sufficient evidence to indict the brothers of pardoned oil trader George Farrugia – Antonio Farrugia, Gaetano  Farrugia, Raymond Farrugia, Emmanuel Farrugia and Salvatore Farrugia on charges relating to bribery of state officials. The men are denying the charges, but the court was told that Antonio, Gaetano, Raymond and Salvatore had previously admitted to police that they had been aware that their brother George had been bribing state officials in order to secure oil contracts from Enemalta. 

October saw the president, vice-president and former director general of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) answer to criminal charges for lying under oath. GRTU president Paul Abela, 64, from Naxxar, deputy president Philip Fenech, 60, from Sliema and retired GRTU director general Vince Farrugia, 71 from St Paul’s Bay, were charged with perjury and subornation of witnesses. The trio are accused of attempting pervert the course of justice in criminal proceedings against developer Sandro Chetcuti, who was convicted of slightly injuring Farrugia.

Chetcuti had originally been accused of Farrugia’s attempted murder but the prosecution had later dropped this charge. Chetcuti was subsequently convicted of having slightly injured Farrugia and was handed a suspended sentence.

Successes against organised crime 

Six Italian nationals, living in Malta – Mario Gennaro, 39, Margherita Giudetti, 34, Francesco Ripepi, 38, Alessandro Ciaffi, 40, Rocco Ripepi, 36 and Fortunato Stracuzzi, 37 – were arrested under a European Arrest Warrant in July, on charges of participation in organised crime and money laundering, and deported to Italy.

The police said that Gennaro registered a company in Malta, called Betuniq, which controlled 1,500 gaming and betting agencies spread all over the Italian territory. The Italian media described the operation as an “economic power of gigantic proportions.”

Early in October, Kartlos Dolaberidze, 41, from Georgia, Kryzsztof Tadeusz Latocha, 30, from Poland, Algirdas Sliogeris, 48, from Lithuania, Adilet Shakirgazieva, 28, from Kyrgyzstan and Mate Oniani, 25, from Georgia are to be indicted in connection with a spate of thefts which terrorised Sliema and surrounding areas in the last two years. 

The thieves had used the same modus operandi to commit all of the thefts, namely gaining entry using so-called ‘bump keys’and stealing cash, gold and jewellery, whilst leaving electronics untouched. The gang’s signature was to leave the homeowner’s socks in odd places.

All five are denying charges relating to conspiracy to commit a crime, participating in organised crime, forming part of a criminal organisation and receiving stolen goods.

A year of police scandals

A drink driving arraignment turned into an investigation into police brutality last May, when Jean Paul Aquilina was charged with drink driving and disobeying police orders. The injuries suffered by Aquilina who “threw himself on the cars” and “broke his own side mirror” during his arrest, led to arresting officers David Camilleri and Mark Tonna Camilleri being charged with beating him. Aquilina was subsequently cleared of all charges.

In June, 20 year-old police officer Jean-Claude Mangion was charged with negligently causing the death of motorcyclist Clive Brincat, with whom he had collided in Mqabba in January 2014. Brincat was 32.

Months later, in November, police inspector Jason Francis Sultana was accused of asking a couple for €4,000 in bribes to let them move into a vacant apartment in Gżira, whose original tenants were in prison for offences relating to prostitution. His case continues in the new year.

Abusing positions of authority

Popular local actor John Suda was granted bail in July after pleading not guilty to committing a violent indecent assault on a young woman. Suda allegedly sexually assaulted the actress and held her against her will during an acting exercise. The case continues to be heard behind closed doors.

Globe-trotting sex pest, 25-year-old Michael Camilo Precht was handed a suspended sentence and fined €2,400 last January after he admitted to his latest ploy, posing as a doctor-cum-modelling agent to grope women on the pretext of performing a pre-employment medical examination.

The internationally loathed pervert then handed the girls a phony medical report on a stolen hospital form, advising them to “find a boyfriend who can give you a massage every day”. At this point, the girls had realized that something was amiss and informed the police.

Long-overdue reform of drug laws introduced

May saw the coming into force of much-awaited reforms to Malta’s drug laws. Under the laws, people caught with small quantities of drugs will be subjected to fines ranging from €65 to €125. Fines for cannabis possession are to be between €50 and €100. First-time offenders accused under the new law will not appear in court but before a newly-appointed Justice Commissioner, Sedqa social worker Victoria Scicluna.