Rizzo returns to pursue suspicion of criminal association first mooted in 2001

For Commissioner of Police John Rizzo, the man whom David Gatt demanded his resignation for his unfair dismissal from the police corps, it is the start of a new case that can resurrect previous accusations by his predecessor George Grech: accusations that Gatt had been in communication with criminal suspects, advising them how to avoid police suspicion during the investigations on a Lm1 million heist.

Lawyer David Gatt – whom police called a ‘boss of bosses’ – was yesterday charged with aiding wanted criminals seek refuge, including fugitive Fabio Psaila, wanted in connection with recent hold-ups; and of seeking medical help for Darren Debono ‘it-Topo’ – whom he is representing in court over the HSBC heist this year.

In 2001, Gatt had been dismissed along with police inspector Ivan Portelli and sergeant Michael Buttigieg from the police corps without ever appearing before the Public Service Commission. Right up until an Appeals Court confirmed their unfair dismissal, it seemed Gatt had been the victim of an unfair hearing by a zealous George Grech. The latter would resign later on in the year in a sexual harassment suit that implicated him directly.

His successor, John Rizzo, took the lead in the case that Gatt and the two other officers filed against the Prime Minister. Rizzo told the court that Gatt had been intercepted in phone calls the Security Services were tapping from the G4S heist suspects. “Not only did he communicate more than once, but he communicated in such a way so as to give certain information as to how the suspect should act to police suspicion,” Rizzo said about Gatt’s conversations with George Briffa, known as ‘il-Piccoli’.

At the time of the officers’ dismissal, in 2001, Rizzo was the Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). “Information came to me that David Gatt was communicating with one of the suspects who was later charged with the theft. Not only did he communicate more than once, but he communicated in such a way so as to give certain information as to how the suspect should act to avoid police suspicion," he told the court.

Rizzo said he the G4S heist suspects were meeting near the Siggiewi cemetery. “We went to check on them. These people left the site and we – the police – followed them and I gave the order to stop them on Triq 13 December, near the Republic monument. There were two Mazda 323s, one blue, one red and one registered in the name of Carmel Camilleri, known at that time as ‘Pissipellu’. And there was George Degiorgio ‘ic-Ciniz’, from Qawra. There were three other notorious persons: there was George Briffa ‘l-Piccoli’ and Degiorgio’s brother Alfred ‘il-Fulu’,” Rizzo said – all suspects in the G4S heist.

Not everyone was charged. Rizzo told the court that his “reliable information” – because the Security Service transcripts were not deposited in court at first – was that Gatt had called Briffa to tell him that they found a piece of “the Cadbury chocolate”, ostensibly a code to indicate the police had put together part of the puzzle.

On his part, David Gatt said he was being targeted by George Grech, because the former Commissioner had taken a fancy to a policewoman with whom Gatt had had a relationship with.

Gatt countered that what he spoke about with Briffa was the “leasing of a bar”, and not about any crime. Gatt knew George Briffa as a rowdy 16-year-old, frequently involved in fights during football matches when Gatt – a police officer who made the grade in 1989 – was stationed in Valletta. “We had met by chance some time later and he had asked me how to go about leasing a bar,” Gatt told the court.

Gatt himself insisted with the court that his telephone conversations had been intercepted, because he had seen the transcrip of the phone calls, and even challenged the Attorney General to produce the documents in court.

But the very transcripts would eventually be removed from the court record, after the court upheld an application from Gatt’s defence team because the warrant for the telephone interceptions was never presented in court: a procedural bungle that might have cost the prosecution its case.

The other dismissals

Ivan Portelli, the other police inspector who featured in the court case against the Prime Minister, also claimed unfair dismissal after George Grech claimed he had been aboard a smuggler’s yacht.

Portelli told the court that Ray Agius, the yacht’s owner, was an informant with whom he had set up an appointment on some documents related to a raid on his stores he had carried out. The day before the appointment, Portelli had been ordered to conduct a search in the residence of Jackie Farrugia, a hotelier, from where he seized some documents.

On the day he was to meet Agius, he boarded his yacht where he found former judge Godwin Muscat Azzopardi, judge Lino Agius, and Farrugia himself. They sailed to Gozo and back. But the day after, George Grech accused him of having been in the company of Ronald Agius, an alleged smuggler. Portelli claimed he was vindictively transferred to the Hamrun police station and later dismissed in May 2001.

Similarly, Buttigieg, a former sergeant, said the Police Commissioner had accused him of complicity in a criminal offence. Grech had testified that during the investigation of a hold-up he was informed by the Security Service that a phone call was traced between Buttigieg and a suspect. Buttigieg denied any wrongdoing and pointed to the fact that he was never given the chance to defend himself.

Unfair dismissal confirmed

With the rash decision by the Commissioner of Police to proceed with their dismissal without a hearing before the Public Service Commission, it was widely expected that the Magistrate’s Court would order their reinstatement with the Police Corps.

In 2009, Gatt had now graduated as a lawyer; while Portelli was working for the Tax Compliance Unit. The Attorney General’s appeal fell flat when in 2010 the Appeals Court found their dismissal had been unconstitutional.

The officers demanded an apology from former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami, while pointing out that Police Commissioner John Rizzo has already left himself with no option but to resign, having assumed “full responsibility” for the affair under oath in court.

Soon after the Appeals’ confirmation, John Rizzo moved to have them removed again from the corps. Gatt, Portelli and Buttigieg were informed in writing by Principal Permanent Secretary Godwin Grima that Commissioner of Police John Rizzo had presented a new report, urging their dismissal from the police force.

They were given 15 days to reply to the accusations, to which they answered by filing a prohibitory injunction against Grimahimself, Rizzo and the Prime Minister.

According to Rizzo’s report, written in the aftermath of the Appeals Court decision, the Commissioner writes that “the clock has been turned back to 2001” and calls for their removal from the force “in the public interest.”

The three men are arguing that since their dismissal from the PSC was already found to have been unconstitutional, they cannot be dismissed again and that the accusations are already prescribed by 10 years.