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Julian Manduca
Former police Commissioner George Grech was often to be seen on a yacht of a well-known businessman “in a drunken state,” businessman Ray Agius alleged when giving evidence in court Wednesday this week.
Agius was giving evidence in the case brought by former police inspectors Ivan Portelli and David Gatt against the Prime Minister for what the two believe was their unfair dismissal from the force.
Strangely enough, part of Agius’s witness was reported in The Times and The Independent as well as in-Nazzjon, but the reports failed to mention Agius replying to questions on a yacht trip that took place when Portelli was still in the force. L-orizzont failed to report the case at all.
That yacht trip was mentioned in the same case both by Portelli as well as by former Commissioner Grech who had suggested that Portelli was on the yacht with a “well-known smuggler.”
Ray Agius explained that the first time he met Portelli was when one of his stores was searched by the police a few months before the yacht incident.
Agius said on that day, a number of police officers including Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar and Portelli searched his store.
He continued to explain how, following the search, Portelli had requested some importation documents which he submitted three days later.
Agius told the court he was never charged with anything and that a few months after the search he had contacted Portelli to provide him with further information that the police inspector had asked for.
Agius said he did not want to meet Portelli at his office at the Police Headquarters and insisted on meeting him elsewhere. He had suggested that they meet near his yacht. According to Agius’ evidence Portelli did not know where his yacht was so it was agreed to meet near the Black Pearl.
Ray Agius told the court that he was aware that Portelli was off duty that day and suggested a trip to Gozo. According to Agius’s witness, he told Portelli that also on his yacht were former Judge Godwin Muscat Azzopardi, who was Agius’s personal lawyer and Judge Lino Agius, who, Agius said, was invited by Muscat Azzopardi. Agius told the court that he had also invited a childhood friend of his, a certain Jack Farrugia.
Asked by Dr Peter Grech representing the Attorney General to explain what happened on the trip, Agius said nothing happened apart from the fact that they all arrived in Gozo went to have lunch and returned back.
Agius insisted with the court that as far as he knew no one of those on board were charged with anything following the trip and that none of them were even questioned by the police about the “incident”.
Asked by the Prime Minister’s lawyer why former commissioner George Grech had referred to him in court as a notorious criminal, Agius produced a conduct certificate, which he exhibited in court, showing that his conduct was clean. Asked whether he saw George Grech on any yacht, Agius explained that Grech was frequently on a number of yachts “in fact every week”. Agius went on to specify that every Thursday it was a sort of party night on a specific yacht owned by a very well-known businessman, and it was “very common to see George Grech on that day in a drunken state.”
Ivan Portelli’s testimony
When former inspector Ivan Portelli took the stand he was asked about what George Grech had said in his testimony about Portelli and imported cars. The former inspector explained that a lot of his friends knew that most of his holidays were spent travelling overland and that he considered this to be one of his hobbies.
Portelli told the court that a certain Marlon Debattista, PC 166, had once asked him whether he would be interested in driving a car from Milan to Malta. “I asked him whether all the papers were in order and Debattista confirmed that everything was fine. I agreed to drive the car and in fact repeated this two or three times without ever having any problems.”
Portelli continued to tell the court that on one occasion Inspector Pierre Calleja had asked him to visit him at his office to ask him a question. “In his office Calleja started asking questions about these occasions, and I responded to every question he asked, and that was the end of the story. “No person was ever charged and I was not even given some kind of warning about these occasions, when I know that police officers are given a warning for even the slightest of breaches.”
Portelli told the court that it was after his meeting with Calleja that he was promoted to the rank of Police Inspector. “I don’t see why George Grech mentioned this incident in court when he was called to testify, to me this was irrelevant.”
David Gatt gives his witness
The court then passed on to the other case that is being heard concurrently, that of David Gatt who was also dismissed from the police force and has instituted proceedings claiming unfair dismissal. Gatt gave a detailed account of his police history and stressed that George Grech’s motive to remove him from the force was related to incidents that occurred when Gatt was about 23 years old. Gatt was dating a policewoman whose name was not mentioned, and then Commissioner Grech was not happy with this situation as he had taken a fancy to the policewoman himself.
Gatt told the court that this was when things started to go sour between the two of them.
When asked about a list of notorious criminals presented in court earlier by Commissioner John Rizzo and of his friendship with them, Gatt insisted that he only knew one of them, a certain George Briffa. He then explained the circumstances of how he had met Briffa and about the three telephone calls he received from him. Gatt insisted and assured the court that, contrary to what John Rizzo had claimed in his testimony, his telephone conversations were intercepted. Gatt said he was very sure the calls were intercepted and that he had seen the transcriptions and challenged the Attorney General to produce them in court.
The case continues on the 29 April and Gatt and Portelli are expected to answer questions put to them by the Attorney General.
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