A man who allegedly offered a €47,000 bribe to a witness who was expected to testify against him in a drug trafficking case has had his ninth bail confirmed by a Criminal Court, which dismissed an appeal by the Attorney General after finding that conditions imposed by a magistrate were sufficiently binding. 

Terence Cini, 38 of Qormi, who was facing drug-trafficking charges, faced fresh charges after allegedly offering the bribe to a witness. It transpired in court that Cini had allegedly paid a lawyer to relay his offer to the witness who at the time was in prison. 

Prosecuting inspectors testified last week about several phone calls traced between Cini and John Mugliette, the witness, who also testified in the proceedings.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Astrid May Grima had then upheld the defence’s request for bail, ordering Cini to deposit €10,000 and also imposing a personal guarantee of €20,000. He was ordered to sign the bail book three times daily and abide by a curfew between midnight and 6am.

The Attorney General filed an appeal against that bail decision, arguing that if found guilty of bribery, that would mean that Cini would have breached his previous bail decrees. The accused was clearly not trustworthy, argued the prosecution.

However, Mr Justice Neville Camilleri, presiding over the Criminal Court, observed that although Cini faced charges for allegedly breaching several sets of bail conditions, he was still presumed innocent.

Although aware of the accused’s various ongoing court cases, the judge observed that the conditions which the AG was seeking to revoke were sufficiently stringent as to bind the accused should he breach one of them.

In light of such considerations, the court turned down the request for Cini’s re-arrest, whilst warning him about the importance of abiding by the conditions imposed upon him by the Magistrates’ Court.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Alfred Abela were defence counsel.