Lands Commissioner feared going to jail upon learning of Lowenbrau deal, testimony reveals

The Labour Party on Wednesday published new evidence it said would further prove the involvement of then Nationalist Party minister Jason Azzopardi in the decision to remove the conditions of the emphytheusis of the former Lowenbrau land in Qormi.

In a press conference, justice minister Owen Bonnici and MP Clifton Grima confirmed that, as revealed by MaltaToday, Azzopardi was the only minister on the list of witnesses in a court case between Marsovin and Vassallo.

During that same case, Bonnici revealed, the Commissioner of Lands, Albert Mamo, had testified that he had not known of the contract with Vassallo and that he only months afterwards had he learned that the department's Director . Mamo testified that when he learned of the conditions being removed, he had gone crazy with worry, fearing he would end up in jail. 

"When I learned of the contract, I ... I went crazy ... I said I am going to prison because of this," he testified.

"The Land Disposal Act includes a policy for you to give factories by direct allocation. In this case, the factory was allocated according to the policy, but ... you cannot just decide ... he [the Director General] just went and removed the conditions, and that is against the Disposal Act."

Affidavit that Nazzareno Vassallo had presented during that court case

He described the director general, Alfred Bezzina, as incompetent and not even able to tell the difference between rent and emphytheusis. 

The land was originally given to Marsovin for Lm10,000 a year with the condition that it be used solely for a brewery. In 2009, the company sold the ownership of the emphytheusis to Vassallo Builders who paid around €250,000 to redeem the emphytheusis after the conditions were removed by the Lands Department. 

The PL has accused Jason Azzopardi of interfering in the negotiations and of doing so again in 2012 when he agreed, as a compromise, to appoint a three-architect panel to establish the value of the conditions. 

Bonnici and Grima today also published an affidavit that Nazzareno Vassallo had presented during that court case, in which he stated he had made it clear to Marsovin representatives that he would only want to buy the land if the conditions on the emphytheusis were removed. 

“I held a meeting in my office which was attended by Jeremy Cassar, Henry Cassar and George Agius ... I made it clear that from the beginning that there would be no use in continuing our discussions if that condition was not removed, and the land made available for the use of any business,” the affidavit read.

Vassallo said he had been reassured that Marsovin had already secured the approval of the Lands Department and the minister of the day that the conditions would be removed once Vassallo paid Lm200,000. 

“During the meeting, besides giving me the price, they informed me that the land was subject to a perpetual emphytheusis of Lm10,000 a year and that it was restricted to be used for the production of beer alone. They also told me that they already had an agreement with the Lands Department that this condition would be cancelled if the sum of Lm200,000 were to be paid.”

Bonnici said these new facts further confirmed Azzopardi's interference in the case, as originally claimed by the Auditor General after an investigation into the sale of the land. Azzopardi has vehemently denied any accusations of political interference