The police commissioner has demanded a magisterial inquiry into the disappearance of a court-seized laptop belonging to Marsaxlokk parish priest Luke Seguna.
The fact that his laptop could not be found in the law courts’ exhibits room came to light when a court expert was appointed to examine its contents. However, when asked for the device, the exhibits’ officer informed the court expert that it could not be found.
When asked by Times of Malta, a spokesperson for the police force confirmed that as soon as a report was made with the police that the equipment went missing, an investigation was initiated, while a magisterial inquiry was also appointed by the duty magistrate.
The spokesperson also pointed out that the laptop did not go missing from police custody but from the law courts building.
The laptop was exhibited in court by the prosecution on June 19. Since it is bulky, it is not kept with the court documents but sent to the court’s strong room after a registration number is allocated to it.
Fr Luke Seguna is facing charges of fraud, misappropriation and money laundering, with prosecutors are claiming he swindled some 150 of his parishioners out of around €500,000 over a 10-year-span.
He is denying the charges.
Following the disappearance of the laptop, Fr Seguna filed an urgent constitutional case claiming a breach of his right to a fair trial.
The priest also claimed that other evidence seized by the police when they had started their investigations was never passed on to court-appointed experts and that the chain of custody of such important proof had been lost.
Since it is bulky, it [the laptop] is not kept with the court documents but sent to the court’s strong room
Over a number of sittings since last August, numerous parishioners testified about the positive work done by Fr Luke for the parish church and the people of Marsaxlokk, some saying that they missed his charitable acts.
Witnesses said that they willingly donated funds under the ‘arbural’ system, while others explained that they used to donate money to the priest to be used by him as he best deemed fit.
However, prosecutors claim that the priest held hundreds of thousands of euros in various bank accounts, together with a collection of five motorbikes and two cars, despite a relatively meagre income as a clergyman.
Several suspicious bank transactions had triggered police investigations in his regard.
Some €148,000 were allegedly traced to payment processing companies linked to a porn site, while police also tracked down several cheques totalling around €18,000 issued by a third party to the priest.
Times of Malta reported last week that another laptop that had been exhibited as evidence in a case against a car dealer charged with money laundering went missing from court.
This emerged during the compilation of evidence against two women – Jessica Sciberras Azzopardi and Maria Attard – who stand charged with aiding and abetting money laundering.
The crucial piece of evidence had been exhibited in January 2022 by the Financial Crimes Investigations Department in the case against car dealer Bernard Attard, 33, of Żebbuġ, who stands charged with misappropriating €1.2 million, fraud and money laundering.
The justice ministry last week appointed an administrative board to review the procedures surrounding exhibits filed in court after items went missing from the court’s strong room.