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Karl Schembri
The police have finally filed charges against the tenant of a shop next to St John’s Co-Cathedral who dug illegally under the church’s oratory ruining underground historical features last September.
Sources said Duncan Fenech will be arraigned in court later this year on charges filed last week, holding him responsible for damaging cultural heritage and with making excavations in an archaeological site without a permit from the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.
Fenech is already being sued for damages by the Lands Department, which owns the building, for digging a cellar to change the Valletta outlet into a wine bar, cutting rock directly underneath the Cathedral Oratory.
The charges just filed by the police carry a maximum of six years imprisonment and up to Lm50,000 in fines if Fenech is found guilty.
Described as “shameful” by the executive secretary of the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation Claude Busuttil, the works were carried out last year at 210C St Merchant’s Street, at the corner of St John’s Square, mainly at night to avoid scrutiny.
In the excavations, the nineteenth century unicorn fountain well and World War II shelters were damaged. “Inspections by officers of the Superintendence have revealed actual physical damage to historical features, due to rock-cutting and removal, structural features and dumping of construction debris into WWII shelters,” Acting Superintendent for Cultural Heritage Nathaniel Cutajar had said.
Completed by the Knights of St John in 1578 on the designs of Maltese military architect Gerolamo Cassar, the Co-Cathedral Oratory houses the world renowned Caravaggio painting of The Beheading of St John, attracting the highest number of tourists to the capital at around 450,000 visitors a year.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
Link: www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/05/21/t2.html
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