A court has ruled that a case filed by NGO Repubblika to challenge the Attorney General’s decision not to prosecute top Pilatus Bank officials is to proceed in public failing proof of an obligation of secrecy allegedly imposed by a foreign tribunal.
That ruling reversed a decision taken by the First Hall Civil Court last November when Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg, assisted by a team of lawyers from her office and by the State Advocate, requested her long-awaited testimony to be heard behind closed doors.
There were various reasons behind that request, she had pleaded, the primary one being that Malta was facing proceedings before an international tribunal and was thus bound by strict confidentiality.
That reference, although not expressly spelt out in court, was most likely to a case Pilatus Bank owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad had filed using a Hong Kong-based company before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Faced with arguments that Malta could also be held guilty of contempt by that foreign tribunal for breaching statutory obligations, the court, as formerly presided by Mr Justice Christian Falzon Scerri, had upheld the respondents’ request. While stressing that judicial proceedings should normally be public, the judge had ordered proceedings to continue behind closed doors until respondents brought evidence regarding the other foreign proceedings.
Since then, the case was re-assigned to newly appointed Madam Justice Doreen Clarke who, on Tuesday, decreed on the matter, effectively opening the doors to the public.
The court observed that in March, the Attorney General had presented a letter from the secretary of the ICSID tribunal stating that the secretariat would publish the award and any order or decision in the case Alpene Ltd vs Republic of Malta, “where both parties consent to publication.”
Otherwise, excerpts of the award would be published.
That letter, while clarifying the position, was certainly not a decision to be considered as binding on the Maltese courts with respect to how proceedings were to be heard, said Madam Justice Clarke.
Since the previous order to hear the case behind closed doors was tied to the alleged obligation of secrecy attributed to the foreign tribunal and since no proof of such obligation had been produced, the court reversed that order.
It was no longer justified to continue to hear the case behind closed doors, decreed the judge, thus paving the path for Repubblika president Robert Aquilina to testify in open court.
Aquilina then took the witness stand, testifying at length about the documentary evidence he had received showing how the financial wrongdoing flagged by the Pilatus Bank magisterial inquiry had taken place with the “active participation and complicity” of top bank officials.
The witness rolled out a long list of suspicious transactions allegedly made by the bank to Maltese authorities, stressing that his testimony was based on evidence he had attested personally.
The case continues.
Lawyer Jason Azzopardi is assisting the applicant.
State Advocate lawyer Fiorella Fenech Vella assisted the respondents.