News • 8 June 2003

Former judge shareholder in illegal M’skala brothel

The family company of a former judge holds shares in a hotel in Marsaskala that is being run as an illegal brothel with Russian prostitutes, MaltaToday can reveal.

The former judge’s wife was once a director of the company, and according to the last documents filed with the Registrar of Partnerships (16 Jan 2003), his family holds 3,336 shares.

On 19 May, the person running the hotel, Eugenio Agius of Marsaskala aged 43, was arraigned in court accused of living off the earnings of prostitution and keeping a brothel in a Marsaskala hotel. The name of the hotel cannot be published by court order.

Agius’ family company is the hotel’s majority shareholder and Agius is also listed as the sole director and the judicial representative.

Investigations carried out by MaltaToday show that the family company of a former judge is also a shareholder in the firm that runs the hotel.

The other shareholders are a Maltese man from Zabbar and a company based in Balzan.

During the proceedings held on 19 May two Russian prostitutes, whose names were also withheld by the court, testified against Agius.

The two Russian women said that they were under the impression that they were coming to Malta to work as barmaids. However, just before boarding the plane to Malta the women learnt that they were to work as prostitutes. They arrived in Malta on 5 May.

The court heard that on arrival the two women were taken to a private home to shower and later picked up by Agius and his family and taken to the hotel.

At the hotel the women met other Russian women from their city. The prostitutes were told that they had to charge Lm15 for their services of which Lm10 was to go to Agius.

They said they usually received clients at the hotel but on one occasion Agius had taken one of them to a man’s house and the other to another hotel. Both women said they were instructed to go to the bar and entertain men. They had between two and six male clients a day.

The two women, one a kindergarten teacher and the other a cultural institute employee, said they did not like prostituting themselves although one of them admitted that she did what she did because she needed the money.

The women said Agius never threatened them or hit them and they were even allowed out of the hotel as long as they informed someone they were going out. Nonetheless, the women could not escape because they had their passports taken away from them.

Agius pleaded not guilty to the accusations and Magistrate Lawrence Quintano granted bail against a personal guarantee of Lm1,000. The case continues.

Police inspectors Louise Calleja and Denise Mula prosecuted while Dr Franco Debono appeared for Agius.