Anthony Debono and his wife, former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono, have expressed relief that their “nightmare” is finally over after a court of appeal upheld a previous court judgment exonerating him from a ‘works-for-votes’ scandal.
“They are relieved this nightmare is all over. A nightmare which they should have never gone through,” their lawyer, Joe Giglio said on behalf of the family.
Contacted following the judgment and asked whether they felt they were victims of a political witch-hunt, Giglio said: “They were the victims of a system that is warped and the fact that this case was a political one made it even worse.”
In May 2015, Debono was charged with misappropriation of public funds, fraud, falsification of documents, abuse of power and committing a crime he was duty-bound to prevent, to the detriment of the government. He was also accused of making a false declaration and trying to prevent other people from giving information or evidence to the competent authorities.
A contractor, Joseph Cauchi, had alleged that Debono, then a civil servant in the ministry for Gozo, had engaged him to carry out works in private properties which were then meant to be paid for by the ministry. He claimed he was never paid for this work.
The Labour Party had embarked on a campaign to take political advantage of the so-called “works for votes” scandal.
Following her husband’s arraignment, Giovanna Debono had resigned from the Nationalist Party’s parliamentary group, pledging to defend her and her family’s integrity and prove her husband’s innocence. She retained her seat in parliament as an independent politician but did not contest the 2017 general election, retiring from politics.
Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera on Friday ruled that the whistleblower, Cauchi, was “not credible and trustworthy”. Neither was his evidence corroborated by other testimonies put forward by the prosecution.
The status of informant ought to be reviewed, the judge declared. And criminal action should be taken against any whistleblower found not to have acted in good faith and who, rather than revealing alleged corruption, sought monetary gain, “as seems to have happened in this case”.
“The status of informant is very important as an instrument to ensure good governance. It places great responsibility both on those who grant such status as well as the person who receives it and, therefore, it must not be abused to recover funds,” the court said.
The court was ruling on an appeal filed by the prosecution, which was seeking to overturn a judgment delivered by then magistrate Neville Camilleri in March.
The magistrate had ruled that the information given by contractor-turned-whistleblower was not sufficient to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.
The appeal court said it could not find a person guilty simply on the basis of suspicion. It observed that the evidence pointed at “unfounded or unproved suspicions” and mere allegations.
Cauchi’s testimony was “neither credible nor plausible”. The evidence put forward by the prosecution was “weak”, the judge added. Cauchi’s motivation, as explained in his testimony, was to get paid for the works he had carried out. In fact, he had gone to various people, including politicians, to recover his dues, the court said.
In his first reaction, Opposition leader Bernard Grech called on Prime Minister Robert Abela to apologise to the Debonos on behalf of the Labour Party after he had assisted Cauchi as his lawyer when the contractor reported his allegations to the police.