Fredrick Azzopardi, former Infrastructure Malta CEO, has been cleared of crimes he was accused of. Not because he didn’t commit them. But our police were so slow to prosecute him that his crimes were time-barred. And the court couldn’t even consider them.
Another of his alleged crimes was extinguished because Infrastructure Malta paid a fine. Very conveniently, Azzopardi has been declared innocent of all charges. And all the headlines, which is the only thing most people read, trumpet the distorted narrative that ‘Former IM boss Fredrick Azzopardi cleared over Wied Qirda works’.
Azzopardi was facing a long list of charges. He was accused of failing to abide by the Environment and Resources Authority stop-and-comply order, breaching environment protection laws, making a false, misleading or incorrect declaration and committing those acts which, as a public officer, he was duty bound to prevent.
In 2019, Azzopardi ordered works to proceed at a protected site in Wied Qirda despite ERA’s order to stop. He was your typical cowboy. He had Joseph Muscat on his side. He knew he could do as he pleased and no law, no regulation, no enforcement notice, no environmental authority was going to stop him. The illegal works continued until January 2020, co-incidentally right after Muscat was forced out of office.
That those works were illegal is a fact. The contractor, Anthony Camilleri of AC Group, who was ordered by Azzopardi to proceed with the illegal works was found guilty and fined €36,000 in April 2022. His crimes were not time-barred. He was prosecuted in time to face the full force of the law. But not the man who had forced him to carry out the works, that is, Azzopardi.
Indeed, if it weren’t for Arnold Cassola, Azzopardi wouldn’t even have been charged. In January 2020, Cassola filed a criminal complaint with the police asking them to investigate and prosecute Azzopardi. The police completely ignored Cassola. But Cassola wasn’t going to let it go. He filed a further complaint with the Professional Standards Board over the police’s inaction.
The police were left with no choice but to bring Azzopardi before the court. But they procrastinated for over two years before serving him notice of the summons. That delay was just enough for charges brought against Azzopardi to be time-barred and the court was compelled to acquit him.
The one charge that was not time-barred was Azzopardi’s failure to comply with ERA’s order. But Azzopardi had a get-out-of-jail-free card for that. ERA provided his alibi. ERA director Aimee Brincat testified that an administrative fee imposed by ERA on “Fredrick Azzopardi Infrastructure Malta” had been paid and, therefore, for the environmental authority, the case was “completely closed”.
It turned out, however, that the penalty wasn’t paid by Azzopardi. That fine was paid by Infrastructure Malta, which means we, the taxpayers, paid Azzopardi’s fine and funded his acquittal.
Azzopardi paid nothing.
The court decided that payment of that administrative fee served to extinguish the crime – “the illegal state had ceased to exist”. It was irrelevant that Azzopardi had paid no fine. What mattered is that the fine had been paid and, therefore, there was no crime to answer for. Bingo, Azzopardi innocent.
The work that Azzopardi ordered in the ecologically sensitive area of Wied Qirda resulted in considerable environmental damage, including uprooting of protected trees and the destruction of natural habitat. Yet, rather than defending the environment, the ERA director was in court defending Azzopardi.
The police procrastinated for over two years before serving Fredrick Azzopardi notice of the summons- Kevin Cassar
The ERA director testified that the remedial work that had been carried out in the valley was “to the satisfaction of the authority”.
How was that even possible?
What did Azzopardi do? Did he revive and replant the uprooted protected trees? Did he miraculously restore the natural habitat he had destroyed?
Once destroyed ecologically sensitive habitats take decades to be restored, if they can be restored at all.
Yet, the ERA director was testifying under oath that Azzopardi had managed to do all this in a few months.
Of course, this was no prosecution. This was just a sham, a disgraceful pantomime. Muscat knew as early as August 7, 2022 that Azzopardi would be acquitted. He had declared it in his Facebook post that morning at 8.17.
“This is just a tick-the-box exercise to pretend that work is being done and the decision is left for the courts. Then, months or years later that person is acquitted,” Muscat had stated.
“I feel it is my duty to defend citizens from the institutions which crumble at the first signs of pressure, somebody must be held responsible,” Muscat threatened. He was upset that Azzopardi was even being bothered with a sham prosecution.
Azzopardi’s acquittal is a sad reflection of the mockery of a justice system our country is burdened with. His acquittal is a perversion of justice. The man who orchestrated the crimes at Wied Qirda is completely exonerated while the contractor who executed his orders is guilty and fined €36,000.
Azzopardi doesn’t pay for his crimes, not even the administrative penalty imposed by ERA.
We pay the price. We pay the price of that administrative fine. We pay the price of the destruction of the environment at Wied Qirda. We pay the price of impossibly long court procedures while court time is wasted on this sham prosecution which was vitiated from the start. We pay the price of wasted prosecuting officers’ time and wages, time that could have been spent conducting proper prosecutions.
Women are dying at the hands of their abusers while their prosecution is delayed for years as prosecuting officers wastefully pursue time-expired charges they know don’t stand a chance.
And we pay the price of seeing impunity continue to reign for those under Muscat’s protection.
Azzopardi’s acquittal is entirely convenient. He gets away with it. Muscat is appeased. And Robert Abela can brag the institutions are working because charges have been brought.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.