Defence and prosecution argued over prescription as proceedings continued in court on Thursday against former Infrastructure Malta CEO Frederick Azzopardi in connection with road works at Wied Qirda in Żebbuġ.

The proceedings had been interrupted when magistrate Elaine Mercieca abstained in September, having decided a case against the contractor commissioned by Infrastructure Malta to handle the works. The contractor, Anthony Camilleri, was fined €36,000 for ignoring a stop and compliance notice.

In that case, it emerged that the contractor was following instructions from Frederick Azzopardi.

The case is now being heard before Magistrate Rachel Montebello.

On Thursday, the court heard testimony and submissions on a number of preliminary pleas raised by the defence.

Aimee Brincat, director, compliance and enforcement at ERA, produced a letter dated March 24, 2022, addressed to Azzopardi in relation to the Stop and Compliance Notice.

Attached to that letter was an invoice including an explanation of how the relative fine was calculated.

Although the works had stopped in January 2020, the fine continued to run until the site was restored in February 2022. Once the €1500 fine was settled, the case file was closed, she said.   

“Who paid the fine?” asked prosecuting Inspector Elliott Magro.

“Infrastructure Malta,” said Brincat.

Asked whether the penalty referred to the stop and compliance Order or was simply a fine until rehabilitation works at the site were completed, the witness explained the fine began to run when the order was issued in November 2019.

The illegal works concerned “stretch of land kilometres long” and the fine continued to run at a daily rate until the breach was removed.

“So it was paid by IM not the accused,” asked the prosecutor.

“The order was issued against IM not Frederick Azzopardi and the fine was paid by IM,” said the witness.

'Pressure from someone' for action against Azzopardi

Proceeding with oral submissions, the defence claimed that “in this case there was pressure from someone to press charges.”

Lawyer Stephen Tonna Lowell noted that at the first hearing in August, all the charges were time-barred but the prosecution had requested a correction of the first charge in a bid to “reactivate” the case.

On August 9, when the charges were time-barred under a two-year prescription, the prosecution requested a correction, changing the date of the charges from February to April 2020.

“The prosecution could never do that. Once time-barred, the prosecution could not correct the charges to reactivate the action,” argued Tonna Lowell.

Checking the case file, the magistrate observed that there was no formal correction in the acts of the case.

The parties explained that the correction had been done during the first hearing on August 9.

The defence also argued that the action itself was extinguished on the basis of article 81 of the Environment Protection Act which states that “In all cases where the authority imposes an administrative penalty and any action in respect of anything done or omitted to be done by any person and such act or omission also constitutes a criminal offence, no proceedings may be taken or continued against the said person in respect of such criminal offence if such person settles the penalty or any imposed action.”

So the case could not be upheld, on the basis of prescription and extinction of the action itself, the lawyer concluded.

The prosecution rebutted that the correction to the date of the charges was requested because the illegal works continued until April 2020.

As for the defence’s argument that the action was extinguished, that provision applied if the penalty was settled “by the person.”

In this case, the fine was paid by IM and “here the accused is not IM but Fredrick Azzopardi because he was the one who went against the Stop and Compliance Order”, argued Magro.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti, also assisting the accused, pointed out that Azzopardi was then-CEO at IM and all correspondence concerning the Authority was addressed to “engineer Frederick Azzopardi at IM.”

The fine was issued against IM and the receipt in favour of “IM CEO Frederick Azzopardi,” thus making up a “full circle between ERA, IM and Azzopardi.” 

The court then deferred the case to December for a decision on those preliminary pleas.

Lawyers Rachel Powell and Ana Thomas also assisted Azzopardi.