Keith Schembri and two of his former business associates awaiting trial for alleged money laundering in a multi-million euro printing press deal, have filed an urgent application questioning the impartiality and independence of forensic experts who investigated the deal.
The former prime minister’s chief of staff, his father Alfio, business partner Malcolm Scerri, accountant Robert Zammit and a number of Schembri’s companies, stand accused of financial crimes in relation to the sale of printing machinery to Progress Press.
They were charged in March 2021, pleading not guilty to all the charges. The court had heard how US$5.5 million (€4.66 million) were paid in backhanders to Adrian Hillman and Vince Buhagiar, two former managing directors of Allied Newspapers, (parent company of Progress Press) and publishers of Times of Malta. They are also facing court proceedings.
Earlier this year, Schembri alongside former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and other high-profile figures, was also charged over his alleged involvement in the now-annulled Vitals hospitals’ privatisation deal.
When the Vitals cases resumed earlier this week, Samuel Sittlington, a foreign expert who was appointed in 2020 by the inquiring magistrate as one of a team of forensic analysts, testified as a prosecution witness.
That testimony was heard in both cases, involving Muscat, Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi on one hand, and former deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne, Central Bank Governor Edward Scicluna and other high-ranking officials on the other.
Shortly after Sittlington finished testifying on Thursday, Schembri’s lawyers filed an application before the judge presiding over pre-trial pleas related to the Progress Press case.
They claimed that in the “past hours” they came to know of documents which appeared to indicate that while working on the inquiry, certain forensic experts, either personally or within the ambit of the foreign forensic company, were in “advanced negotiations” with the Police Commissioner.
Reference was made to an offer of services to the police against payment of “close to €1 million.”
The lawyers questioned Sittlington about the issue on Wednesday and Thursday.
He confirmed that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa’ had sought a proposal from him for services consisting of the training of recruits and other officers in financial crimes techniques.
Schembri’s lawyers made reference to a particular email wherein Sittlington allegedly told the Commissioner that “…..being aware of a number of the current investigations within financial crime, I am only too aware of the challenges you face and am honoured and delighted to be able to play a part in assisting with that process.”
When testifying on Wednesday, Sittlington explained that he had discussed the project with then-deputy commissioner Alexandra Mamo, but the proposal never came to fruition.
He was told that the police were seeking EU funding and that plans were to be put off for some months. Since then, he never heard anything else, Sittlington testified.
The expert was also questioned by the defence teams about a similar scenario in a “foreign country” which allegedly led to the termination of Sittlington’s contract by the British authorities.
In light of such information, including documents which constituted important and determining evidence about whether these experts could be considered as “impartial and independent” in terms of law, Schembri’s lawyers asked the judge hearing the Progress Press case to order Sittlington, the Police Commissioner and former Deputy Commissioner Mamo to testify and exhibit the relative correspondence referred to during the Vitals sittings.
Lawyers Edward Gatt, Mark Vassallo and Shaun Zammit signed the application.