|
Matthew Vella
A farmer who faces eviction by the company which has purchased acres of fields at Bahrija, was not found guilty of having assaulted Generoso Sammut, a shareholder of Eliza Company Ltd, in Bahrija, back in June 2001.
The Court instead declared it was partial to Portelli’s version of events, who claimed Generoso Sammut had assaulted him, tearing off his shirt, before being held by other people present.
Sammut is accused, along with former METCO Norman Zammit, another Eliza Company shareholder, of stealing paintings and furniture from Villa Fiorentina in Attard, back in September 1999.
The Court said Eliza Company, which brought the case against farmer Angelo Portelli, could not prove it had lost out on a business deal to sell its land, because of an alleged assault by Portelli. Witnesses said the land was being sold at some Lm3,000 per tumolo (3,698 square metres).
Eliza Company is marketing the sale of 1.5 million square metres of land at Bahrija, for centuries the property of the Bahria nobles.
Farmers on the land claim Eliza Company is trying to bully them off the land, which for the past 300 years has been leased to them and their ancestors. In September 2004, Eliza attempted to freeze the farmers’ bank accounts by asking for a garnishee order. They later successfully managed to get a warrant of prohibitory injunction preventing the farmers from walking on the land. Sammut and another shareholder, Anthony Cuschieri, were negotiating with a property agent at Bahrija, when Portelli came up to the group to ask them what they were doing on his land. After an exchange of insults, Sammut stepped up to Portelli and attacked him. Portelli said the police had not made it to the scene after calling them on his phone, and instead went to the Rabat station to file a report.
Generoso Sammut has in the past been found guilty of threatening Labour MP Anglu Farrugia, who as a lawyer was representing a group of Bidnija farmers, in an anonymous phone call. The Bahrija farmers’ lawyer Toni Abela, has also presented a verbal report to the court of Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia, claiming that Sammut had threatened to kill him in the law courts.
Two weeks ago he was arraigned in court, along with notary Anthony Agius, accused of forgery of public acts. Sammut had already attempted to defraud his own sister of their aunt’s inheritance, with the fabrication of a secret will that had him as Concetta Sammut’s sole heir.
He registered a claim to safeguard his interests exactly one day after his aunt’s death, claiming in court he took his aunt to the office of notary Antoine Agius where the new will had been drawn up.
Police investigations found Concetta Sammut’s signature on the secret will to have been fabricated. Generoso Sammut’s sister, who lived with the aunt, said Concetta not only refused to speak to Generoso, but actually feared him.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
Link:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2005/06/05/t12.html
|
