Updated 11.30am, adds Justice Minister's statement
A laptop that had been exhibited as evidence in a case against a car dealer charged with money laundering went missing from court. A magistrate has ordered the Court Services Agency CEO and the registrar to explain.
The crucial piece of evidence had been exhibited in January 2022 by the Financial Crimes Investigations Department but when officers went to retrieve it to present it as evidence in a different but related case, this could not be found.
This emerged when Magistrate Leonard Caruana was due to hear the compilation of evidence against two women – Jessica Sciberras Azzopardi and Maria Attard – who stand charged with aiding and abetting money laundering.
The prosecution in the case informed the court that a Lenovo laptop linked to the case could not be found after it had been presented as evidence in the case against car dealer Bernard Attard, 33, of Żebbuġ who stands charged with misappropriating €1.2 million, fraud and money laundering.
The court took note of the submissions and ordered that Court Services Agency CEO, Eunice Grech Fiorini and court registrar Franklin Calleja to appear before him in two weeks to offer an explanation.
In a statement on Friday morning, the agency said it was cooperating with the relevant authorities, including the court, the police and the Administrative Review Tribunal set up by the Justice Minister to examine the process of custody and preservation of items exhibited during legal procedures.
Justice Minister Jonathan Attard said later the agency has commenced efforts to enhance exhibit retention levels, including negotiations for the implementation of a Radio-frequency identification system for labelling exhibits.
He said his ministry remained steadfast in its commitment to sustaining investment and reforming systems and procedures to ensure their effectiveness and relevance.
Bernard Attard was targeted by police investigations following complaints by two individuals who claimed to have paid him €600,000 and €8,500. A notary also reported that a signature and official stamp that had been used on a document could potentially lead investigators to another instance of suspected fraud to the tune of €600,000.
News of this missing laptop comes hot on the heels of the disappearance of another laptop belonging to Marsaxlokk parish priest Luke Seguna, who is facing fraud charges and whose laptop could not be found in the law courts’ exhibit room.
The discovery was made by court expert Keith Cutajar who was nominated by the court to examine the contents of the laptop. But when he asked the exhibits’ officer for the device, a MacBook, it could not be found.
The laptop had been exhibited in court by the prosecution on June 19, 2023.
Fr Seguna is facing charges of fraud, misappropriation and money laundering, with prosecutors claiming he swindled some 150 of his parishioners out of around €500,000 over a 10-year-span.
A phone owned by former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, held by the courts as part of the evidence in a money laundering case against him, went missing for weeks last November, only to be found among the exhibits of a separate case.
This was the second phone owned by Schembri to go missing, after another device was not found when he was arrested in November 2019 in connection with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
While, in that 2019 incident, Schembri told the police he had misplaced his phone, in this most recent case the phone was ‘lost’ while in the courts’ possession.
In a statement on Friday, civil society group Repubblika expressed shock that, yet again, evidence in court had disappeared.
It said this was unacceptable and responsibility should be shouldered.
Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, it said, should explain what happened, see who should shoulder responsibility, say what steps were being taken to avoid a repeat and work for the evidence be gathered again.
If the minister did not want to do his duty, the Prime Minister should remove him or assume responsibility himself, Repubblika said.
In another statement, the Nationalist Party said this was another confirmation that the situation in court was on the brink of collapse.
The minister, the party said, should shoulder political responsibility and resign. It said that two years after his appointment, justice had deteriorated and was now in crisis.
The PN said it was insisting on its proposal submitted in November for Parliament to have a select committee for justice that would investigate and address the grievous situation justice in Malta was in.
Such a committee would have the power to call the minister and all those responsible for the administration of the courts to shoulder their responsibilities, it said.