Lawyers for two former directors of Zenith Finance, whose lives have been “literally frozen” since targeted by money laundering charges over a year ago, have accused the prosecution of going on “a fishing expedition”, fishing up data and dishing out the final product accordingly.
Matthew Pace and Lorraine Falzon, sole shareholders of the formerly €20 million plus worth company now reduced to bankruptcy, ended up with their lives on hold while the court’s time was wasted in “endless discussions” about Pace’s yet-unlocked mobile phone.
That device had been seized at the time of Pace’s arrest and arraignment back in March 2021.
Eight months later, the prosecution first came up with the request to have data extracted from the phone, saying that it might contain “chats” that were relevant to the charges.
Yet, Pace could not recall the code that was needed to unlock the device which had been out of his possession for a number of months.
The court-appointed telephony expert requested the assistance of a foreign firm, given that the necessary procedure could not be conducted locally.
But, months later, he came back, informing the court, presided over by magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, that he had encountered a problem.
Faced with the request in the name of the local courts services agency, the foreign company said that “enhanced due diligence” was necessary because there were “politically exposed persons” linked to the courts.
The same reply was given over a number of months and the situation dragged on, in spite of objections by the accused’s lawyers and concern voiced by the presiding magistrate.
Finally, in June, the expert informed the court that he was unable to fulfil his brief because of a pending “fee administration problem”.
However, the prosecution persisted in requesting the data from Pace’s mobile phone.
In an attempt to unblock the impasse, the court turned to the Attorney General to suggest the name of an expert who could unlock the phone and also notified the Justice Minister to intervene.
In a July sitting, the AG refused to name an expert but insisted upon its request for the data.
In that same sitting, the prosecuting officer confirmed on oath that the mobile data was not in hand when police pressed charges a year and four months ago.
As the “endless discussions” dragged on, the prosecution suddenly mentioned another device, a laptop seized when police searched Pace’s home prior to his arraignment.
In their haste to prosecute, it seemed that police had not even bothered to check the contents of Pace’s phone that was now deemed so important to the prosecution’s case.
The prosecution was “fishing” for data and then “cooking” it accordingly, argued the lawyers, making reference to the procedure adopted in the UK where such data was extracted throughout the investigations and before the rraignment of suspects.
On the contrary, in the case of Zenith Finance and its directors, the prosecution was trying to introduce evidence which it had no idea about at the time of the arraignment.
Yet, the prosecution had deemed the evidence in hand sufficient at the time, argued the lawyers, claiming that the charges were “obscene”.
This impasse meant that little progress was registered in the past months while the AG remained set in her ways on this issue.
With nowhere else to turn, the accused took their grievances before the First Hall, Civil Court, in its constitutional jurisdiction, claiming that they were suffering a breach of their fundamental rights to a fair hearing within a reasonable time and peaceful enjoyment of their private property.
In their application filed against the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner, Zenith Finance’s lawyers requested the court to declare the breach and also that the request for such data was “illegal and abusive”.
They further requested the court to set a time-limit for the prosecution to wrap up its evidence and to provide adequate measures accordingly.
Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo signed the application.