Man charged with offering a €47,000 bribe to witness granted bail for ninth time

Terence Cini, who was accused of offering a €47,000 bribe to a witness through his lawyer last week, has been granted bail again today on what is his ninth concurrent set of bail conditions.

It comes less than a day after the Criminal Court had confirmed the granting of his eighth set of bail conditions, following an objection raised by the Attorney General.

In a decision handed down yesterday, Madam Justice Edwina Grima rejected the Attorney General’s appeal against releasing Cini from arrest for the eighth time.

This morning, the 38-year-old Qormi man was granted bail for the ninth time as the bribery-related case began being heard by magistrate Astrid May Grima.

Cini’s release from arrest in these proceedings is secured by a €10,000 deposit and a €20,000 personal guarantee.

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This morning, magistrate Grima heard police inspectors Mark Mercieca and John Lee Howard testify about how they had been sent to notify incarcerated witness John Mugliette to testify in Cini’s case in prison.

They had informed the court that phone calls between Mugliette and Cini had taken place while the former was in prison. Cini was subsequently re-arrested and his mobile phone was seized. It emerged that Mugliette had called Cini three times from jail and had been discussing the possibility of Cini paying a pending €40,000 fine of Mugliette’s.

Inspector Mercieca said that Cini had sent lawyer Matthew Xuereb to speak to Mugliette to discuss the paying of the fine. Mugliette told the police that Xuereb had been aware that he was a witness in Cini’s case and had even shown him his summons.

Police are continuing their investigation into Xuereb, he said, adding that the lawyer had been questioned, and had told the police he had been sent by Cini but did not know about what.

Mugliette, too, confirmed the inspector’s account.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Alfred Abela requested bail for Cini at the end of the sitting, in view of the fact that the main witness had now testified.

The request was objected to by the prosecution on the grounds of the accused’s untrustworthiness, as well as the seriousness of the charge of having attempted to influence a witness.

Bail was, however, granted against a €10,000 deposit and a €20,000 personal guarantee.

Cini was ordered to observe a curfew and sign a bail book at specific intervals.