Judge testifies in bribery case

A judge yesterday took the witness stand in the case against two fellow judges to say, in reply to the allegations of bribery, that he had never come across "such filth" in the 33 years he had been a member of the legal profession.

Mr Justice Joseph Filletti, who had sat in the Court of Criminal Appeal in its superior jurisdiction with then Chief Justice Noel Arrigo and then Mr Justice Patrick Vella, said he had never been "approached" or knew of anyone who had been approached or who had approached a member of the judiciary in all his time as a judge.

"I never had anything to do with such filth and I never even knew of any dishonest affair. To my knowledge, nothing was untoward or abnormal. It was all routine and legal and had I come across anything which was not, I would have reported it," Mr Justice Filletti said.

The judge testified before Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona in the compilation of evidence against Judge Arrigo, 52, of Siggiewi and Judge Vella, 58, of San Pawl tat-Targa, after a request was filed by the Attorney General.

The judges are pleading not guilty to two counts of bribery and one of revealing official secrets in connection with a judgment handed down by the Court of Criminal Appeal against drug trafficker Mario Camilleri on July 5.

The charges are aggravated by the fact that they were public officers duty bound to prevent crime.

Mr Justice Filletti yesterday explained that in July 2002, he had formed part of the Court of Criminal Appeal in its superior jurisdiction and on July 5, 2002, the court had handed down five judgments, two of which had been amended and one revoked.

The appeal judgment against Mario Camilleri had reduced the punishment from 16 years in jail to 12 years and a fine.

The judge said the appeal had been filed on punishment only and the appeal court had never gone into the question of guilt or otherwise because the defendant had filed a guilty plea.

All five judgments had been drafted by Judge Vella. Mr Justice Filletti said he had only seen one draft of the judgment setting the punishment at 12 years.

He remembered remarking to the then chief justice Noel Arrigo that he was convinced of the need to revoke the judgment against George Spiteri but that the chief justice might want to take a closer look at it since it was a drug trafficking case.

He had also remarked, on the Mario Camilleri case, that he was under the impression that it had been agreed that the punishment would go down to 13 years but the chief justice informed him that there had been developments which merited the additional reduction.

Mr Justice Filletti said the chief justice had explained that the developments had taken place at a meeting with the prosecutor and the defence.

He had seen nothing untoward in all this and the punishment was well within the legal parameters because the minimum punishment was a four-year jail term which went up to a maximum of life imprisonment.

Criminal Court deputy registrar Aldo Testone exhibited a copy of a note filed by Dr Emmanuel Mallia, for Mario Camilleri, in the records of the appeal proceedings on May 10, 2002, following submissions made in open court.

Under cross-examination, Testone said the note had come before Judge Vella who had ordered that a copy be forwarded to the Attorney General who had two days to file a reply.

The deputy registrar said it did not seem that the AG had filed a reply but the file of proceedings were not numbered after page 297 and he could not guarantee that no papers had gone missing from the file.

Testone also said, in reply to a question by defence counsel, that the date under the judge's signature seemed to be crossed out.

Magistrate Micallef Trigona then saw the file and declared that the date had been crossed out in ink.

The transcript of the ruling however showed the date as May 10.

Judge Vella then declared that the ruling had been written and signed by him personally, that the date should have been May 13, that he had not crossed out the date and that, had he made a mistake and crossed it out, he would have written it again.

Testone then explained, when asked, that the file was kept locked and the only people who had access to it were the four deputy registrars and a court assistant.

The file had been handed to him in the morning and he had taken the witness stand before Magistrate Abigail Lofaro before coming to testify before Magistrate Micallef Trigona.

He had never seen the file previously, so much so that he had told Magistrate Lofaro that he did not have transcripts of the submissions on punishment whereas he had realised he had and had exhibited them in the case before Magistrate Micallef Trigona.

In the morning, Testone and assistant director Paul Miruzzi testified before Magistrate Lofaro in the case against the four men charged with complicity in the judges' bribery.

Joseph Zammit, better known as is-Sei, 57, Anthony Grech Sant, 55, Mario Camilleri, 40, and his son Pierre, 20, are pleading not guilty to peddling in influence, aiding and abetting in the bribery of two judges and conspiring to commit a crime.

Zammit is also charged with defrauding Mario Camilleri and/or other people out of some Lm5,000 and a second count of trading in influence.

Both are also charged with relapsing.

At the end of yesterday's sitting, Grech Sant's 6 p.m. curfew was lifted for Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays on humanitarian grounds after his lawyer informed the court that a relative of Grech Sant's wife had died and he wanted to be able to give her support.

Meanwhile, Zammit's permission to leave his house once a week to register at the Employment and Training Corporation was extended from one hour to any time between 8 a.m. and noon.

Pierre Camilleri was denied bail at this stage.

The case continues.

Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar and Superintendent Pierre Calleja are prosecuting.

Dr George Abela and Dr Joseph Giglio are counsel to Judge Arrigo and Dr George Cutajar and Dr Michael Sciriha are counsel to Judge Vella.

Dr Joseph Brincat is appearing for Grech Sant, Dr Chris Cardona for Zammit and Dr Franco Debono for the Camilleris.