[WATCH] Azzopardi: ‘Higher compensation for Peresso had case gone to Strasbourg court’

Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi defends decision by previous government to compensate landowner €450,000 for land originally valued at €60,000 • Video by Ray Attard

Former minister for lands, Jason Azzopardi, has defended a decision to compensate a landowner whose parcel of land was expropriated €404,000 when the land in question had been originally valued at €60,000.

Emanuel Peresso’s land, of some eight tumoli, was expropriated in 1974 without compensation.

A thread of emails published by MaltaToday on Sunday show that the Lands Department had initially valued the land at €60,000.

But Azzopardi defended the government’s pay-out, which he said included interest, by saying that it would have ended up paying more had Peresso taken the matter to the Lands Arbitration Court, or even to the European Court of Human Rights.

He referred to a similar case, decided in 2014 by the ECHR, to award €450,000 in damages for two-thirds of tumuli of land expropriated in 1974. “Can you imagine how much the government would have had to pay Perosso in compensation had he taken the case to Europe? There were other similar cases too, both against Malta and other European countries. The ECHR frowns on de facto expropriation.”

An email dated 9 October 2011 from the then-director general of the Lands Department Albert Mamo to Azzopardi, showed that Mamo had originally estimated the land at €60,000. Mamo later told Azzopardi that he had requested a fresh valuation and that the value was subsequently increased to €140,000.

This was confirmed by a statement that Peresso gave to the press, although not to MaltaToday.

He said the Lands Department first valued his land in January 2012 at €118,000, made up €59,130 for the land and €58,946 in interest.

Peresso also confirmed that in 2011, the Lands Department offered an Attard plot in kind, which he did not accept and claiming that the Lands Acquisition Act did not contemplate barters but only cash payments for expropriations.

Peresso contested the description by the Lands Department of his land as a “countryside passage”, saying the total area consisted of over 8,500 square metres.

He said that the land, expropriated in 1974, was left out of a legal provision to incur 5% interest on the market value of government-expropriated lands and that he complained about it with the Office of the Prime Minister.

On his part, Lawrence Gonzi was said by Peresso to have replied to his complaint saying that he would seek the advice of the Attorney General: “Allow me to emphasise that the valuation of any piece of land is not and can never be a political decision. This is why it is a matter left in the hands of the architects. Of course, you are not obliged to accept it and you have every right to contest it in accordance with the established procedure... I will continue to insist that you are given what is due to you by right. This must be done in accordance with the correct procedures and for no other reason,” Gonzi was claimed to have told Peresso.

In the emails, Mamo complained to Azzopardi to say that Peresso “still insists that the price of the land is €400,000 and compiled a report by his architect basing his argument on the market price and what the land would actually cost if sold for development today as this was his original intention.”

On his part, Azzopardi said that a government-appointed architect for the Lands Department valued the land at around €100,000 while Peresso’s own valued it at €300,000. An arbiter valued the land at €206,000, to which both parties agreed to, along with a 2.5% interest – at half the 5% rate laid down at law – saving the government €200,000 in interest fees.

Peresso in his statement said he engaged Denis Camilleri as an architect, who valued the land at €40,000 per tumolo, to a total value of €307,775. He said that adding the 5% interest for each of the 38 years would have made the total amount for compensation at €556,200.

He was paid a total of €404,020 representing the sum of €206,000 as the price of the land and €198,020 in interest, paid at 2.5% per annum, and on condition he does not pursue any legal action.

“It is obvious that I am the one who was wronged when I had to accept a sum inferior to what I was entitled at law; I and my lawyer at the time (Prof. Ian Refalo) protested vehemently but to no avail as I was faced with a situation that I either accept the compensation as offered or wait for it for an undefined period.”

Azzopardi also said that it should be the Labour Party to apologise for illehal land-grabs in the 1970s and 1980s, saying it was trying to deviate public attention from the Old Mint expropriation scandal.

In a statement, the Labour Party accused Azzopardi of attacking Government Property Department officials who had originally estimated the land at €60,000. “Azzopardi is trying to hide how his own involvement led to the land being valued at €400,000,” the PL said in a statement. “Despite the GPD officials having told Azzopardi that they couldn’t understand how the land’s value could be increased, it ended up increasing by seven times the original amount thanks to political interference.”