Alfred Degiorgio, accused of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, was awarded €7,000 and an annual five per cent interest for 11 years as compensation. Mr Justice Toni Abela ruled that Degiorgio’s human rights were breached by lengthy court proceedings.
On October 26, 2000, a Group 4 van was ambushed in an armed robbery and €2 million were stolen. Degiorgio was charged with involvement in the hold-up and given bail in December 2000. It took eight years before the case started. It took another decade before Degiorgio was found guilty of handling stolen property and sentenced to a suspended two-year jail term.
A full decade after the case started and 18 years after the robbery, Degiorgio was acquitted on a procedural defect because the prosecution failed to include Degiorgio in its original charges of handling stolen property.
Degiorgio filed constitutional proceedings against the attorney general and the police commissioner for breaching his human rights. Just months later, Mr Justice Abela awarded Degiorgio thousands of euros – out of our taxes.
On October 19, 2021, the same judge awarded Alfred’s brother, George, his co-accused in Caruana Galizia’s murder, €10,000 after ruling that his right to his private and family life was breached.
The head of the security services had tapped Degiorgio’s phone without authorisation.
“Not only was there no warrant but the commissioner of police doesn’t appear to know what was happening,” Mr Justice Abela concluded. And he condemned us, the taxpayers, to pay Degiorgio €10,000.
Barely a week later, the court decided Keith Schembri’s rights had been breached when his assets were frozen. Schembri was awarded compensation to be paid by the attorney general, the state advocate and the police commissioner. That means we, the taxpayers, compensated Schembri.
In April 2021, the court awarded Schembri and Brian Tonna compensation for moral damages they suffered when an asset freeze breached their rights. The freezing order followed the conclusion of a magisterial inquiry into allegations that Schembri received kickbacks from Tonna from the sale of passports.
Reasonable suspicion existed that the two laundered money. Tonna’s and Schembri’s assets were frozen in September 2020. Just seven months later, Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff awarded both men compensation for their suffering. That compensation came from our taxes.
Mr Justice Mintoff also ruled that Yorgen Fenech’s right to protection from arbitrary detention was breached by the superintendent of public health, who suspended legal time limits because of COVID-19.
The superintendent’s legal notice (65 of 2020) closing the courts of justice became effective on March 16, 2020. Only two months later, the court was protecting Fenech’s rights.
The incredible efficiency of the justice system in protecting the rights of suspected criminals is outdone only by the lethargic fumbling of the prosecution of those very suspects. In Alfred Degiorgio’s case, it took eight years to charge him with involvement in an armed robbery and 17 years to find him guilty. Yet, it only took months to reverse the sentence and acquit him, awarding him thousands of euros in compensation.
The unwillingness of law enforcement and prosecution services to bring criminals to justice serves only one purpose – criminal protection. The sheer incompetence, laziness, bungling and negligence allowed dangerous elements to allegedly blow people up and cheat the taxpayer.
Even when, occasionally, charges are brought, the sheer imbalance between the professionalism and expertise of well-paid defence lawyers and the amateurism of the prosecution almost always leads to acquittal.
For years, FIAU reports and damning detailed intelligence remained ignored and buried- Kevin Cassar
For years, FIAU reports and damning detailed intelligence remained ignored and buried. Botched prosecutions, through poor resources, even poorer expertise, complete unwillingness or ulterior motives, punished honest law-abiding citizens.
Politically appointed heads of regulatory authorities such as the MFSA, the Malta Gaming Authority, the police, the tax department and the Planning Authority maintained close relationships and closer communication with suspected criminals.
Some of them joined the suspects they were meant to regulate on their private yachts or accompanied them on lavish trips to Las Vegas or to watch international football matches.
Ministers, parliamentary secretaries, the chief of staff and the prime minister himself were close friends of suspected criminals, inviting them to private parties, joining them for dinners and accepting lavish gifts and bagfuls of cash from those very suspects.
Some even flooded those suspects’ phones with grovelling infantile messages. One of those is our justice minister.
The biggest loser in all this is that wretched soul, the taxpayer. That taxpayer pays the salary of that obscenely shameless Edward Zammit Lewis, whose task should be to ensure the rule of law is enforced. Instead, his time is frittered sucking up to criminal suspects and enjoying their hospitality.
The taxpayer pays for the costs of the rampant corruption enabled and promoted by those very ministers who waive millions of euros in excise tax refunds owed by Electrogas. The taxpayer paid the millions of euros that Ram Tumuluri escaped with after the Vitals heist. The taxpayer continues to pay for the millions that Armin Ernst, the chameleon who seamlessly changed his Vitals colours to Steward ones, siphons into his adoptive company with the help of Joseph Muscat.
After bleeding the taxpayer dry through their criminal plans, these crooks and their political friends mostly evade prosecution. Or simply face what to many look like sham prosecutions carefully planned to guarantee acquittal or intentionally dragged out for so long that justice is never served.
The final slap in the taxpayer’s face is the compensation the taxpayer is compelled to pay these very crooks. The same justice system that failed to prosecute these crooks penalises honest taxpayers for the failures of that justice system.
The innocent taxpayer was condemned by Labour’s judges to pay thousands of euros to the Degiorgios, Schembri and Tonna for the failures of the attorney general, the police commissioner, the head of the security services, and the courts, after providing them with impunity for years.
That is the injustice of Maltese justice. Labour’s ministers and their crooked friends reap the benefits. The people pay the costs.