A Nepalese man who came to Malta after a friend promised to help him get a job has described in court how he was turned away by the prospective employer who told him some of the documents he had presented were fake. 

The man, now working in construction, testified on Wednesday in proceedings against Andre’ D’Amato, a 37-year-old ICT professional and former diplomat, who is pleading not guilty to human trafficking, fraud, falsification of documents and money laundering.

D’Amato, was a MITA official at the time of the alleged offences in 2018. He was later made non-resident ambassador to Cuba but was stripped of his diplomatic duties when the criminal allegations surfaced last year.  

When his case resumed on Wednesday, the Nepalese witness said that he travelled to Malta last December after a friend applied for a job on his behalf. 

He transferred €4,000 through mobile banking to his friend who told him that the money was meant “for someone else.” 

But when he went to a company, formerly based at San Gwann, which was meant to engage him, an official told him that some of the documents were not genuine. He never got the job at that company. 

The prosecution is claiming that the money was handed to D’Amato to apply for a work permit, apparently on behalf of his clients, including the San Gwann company. 

Prosecuting Inspector Karl Roberts said that at the time of the alleged offences, D’Amato acted as administrator at MITA (the state IT agency).

The witness said that he had received the work-related documents from his friend who in turn claimed to have acquired the paperwork from a third party named “Navraj.” 

Under cross examination, the witness said that all transactions were done with his friend.

He never met D’Amato and could not identify him in court. 

Asked by defence lawyer Alfred Abela whether he had gone to the company for a termination form, the witness replied, “I do not know exactly.” 

But he confirmed that when he turned up at the San Gwann company, he already had a job approval from another company. 

The court also heard submissions about the prosecution’s request for a full download of data on D’Amato’s electronic devices. 

His lawyers objected, arguing that the prosecution was on “a fishing expedition.” The criminal complaint that triggered criminal charges against D’Amato was “very restricted,” being limited solely to some ten or so individuals who were unknown to the company. Data on the defendant’s devices could possibly concern third parties and other private communication that was totally unrelated to the criminal case, lawyers argued.

“Why should such data end up in court?”argued defence lawyer Franco Debono, further voicing concerns about the controls applicable in respect of such data extraction. Under UK law, there were codes of practice on how and where such data was to be extracted, he said.

Debono pointed out that a similar issue had cropped up in separate proceedings concerning former Labour MP Silvio Grixti. 

In that case, the magistrate had taken particular measures, ordering that the data extraction process was to be recorded from start to finish.

Inspector Roberts countered that nowadays this process was entrusted to private experts rather than investigators at the police cybercrime unit to waive any doubts about possible conflicts.

Magistrate Leonard Caruana who is presiding over the D’Amato’s case, said that the court would decree on the matter in chambers. 

The case continues in September. 

AG lawyer Andreas Vella and Inspector Karl Roberts prosecuted.Lawyers Franco Debono and Alfred Abela were defence counsel.