Former Labour general secretary Jimmy Magro jailed after losing appeal
Magro is the most senior former member of a political party to be imprisoned in recent memory
Former Labour Party general secretary Jimmy Magro has had an almost-five year prison sentence confirmed by the appeals court on Tuesday, marking a definitive end to a high-profile corruption case.
This means Magro will now have to go to prison, making him the most senior former member of a political party to serve time behind bars in recent memory.
Magro was found guilty of soliciting kickbacks and attempting to influence a public tendering process involving an EU-funded project when he was a special advisor for the Local Councils association.
The judgment, delivered by Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, dismissed Magro's appeal and reaffirmed the gravity of a public official abusing their position for personal gain.
The judge confirmed his prison sentence of four years and eight months.
Magro served as general secretary of the Labour Party for 12 years until 2003, when he chose not to recontest the post. He was subsequently appointed to various government posts.
He continued to be employed by government agency Malta Enterprise until he was 62 and also allowed to claw back €9,000 in deducted salary payments he was initially denied due to a suspension on half-pay.
The core of the corruption
The former political operative stood accused of having solicited a bribe in exchange for helping a bidder secure a €250,000 public contract for waste collection equipment in 2014. At the time, he was a special consultant to the Local Councils Association.
Magro was the designated project leader for the tendering process and sat on its adjudicating board.
Investigations revealed emails in which he asked Victor Bonello – the bidder who eventually filed a criminal complaint against him – to meet to discuss “our commercial take” in the project.
Bonello testified that he met Magro at a cafeteria at Pavi supermarket. There, Magro told him that he could secure the tender for them but that he needed help to cover some expenses he had, including pending taxes and an upcoming holiday.
The failed bidder refused to pay the money and subsequently filed multiple reports about the alleged bribery attempt, including a meeting with then-prime minister Joseph Muscat.
Magro consistently denied the corruption charges and also sought damages from the anti-corruption commission, saying its report had caused him reputational damage.
Police eventually pressed charges and Magro was first found guilty in April last year. The court sentenced him to four years and eight months in prison.
However, it cleared him of having received a bribe, as there was no evidence that money changed hands.
Magro appealed the sentence, arguing the first court could not reasonably find him guilty based on the evidence and arguments it had heard, and that the prosecution was not able to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
He also argued he should not be considered a "public official" or "public employee" because his specific role at the time was as a part-time consultant for the association. This meant the strict, anti-corruption laws for public officers should not apply to him, he said.
Court not swayed
However, the appeals court upheld the original judgment, which had ruled that Magro was indeed a public employee. The court pointed to his employment contracts and the fact that he was managing public and EU funds, which legally bound him to the standards of integrity expected of anyone performing a public duty.
The first court had ruled that Magro’s actions "tarnished the integrity of the tendering process" and could have caused "irreparable damage" to Malta’s reputation with the European Union, which provides substantial funding for such projects.
At the appeals stage, Magro also argued that the first court incorrectly evaluated the evidence presented to it and applied the incorrect punishment in its decision.
And he argued the court should consider his age, clean code of conduct and medical issues when handing down its punishment.
But the appeals court was not swayed by these arguments, refused them and upheld the original sentence "in its entirety".
Apart from sentencing him to four years and eight months in prison, the court also interdicted Magro for life, effectively barring him from any public office or employment.
Last year, following the first judgment, the Labour Party said Magro is not a party member anymore.
The bidder who filed the criminal complaint was represented by lawyer Jason Azzopardi.