Case over 2018 wall collapse at Cittadella must be retried, court rules

A judge has ordered the retrial of a Gozo case which had cleared three men and a woman of responsibility for the 2018 collapse of a parapet wall and counterscarp at the historical Cittadella fortifications, during works converting an 18th Century house into a boutique hotel, ruling that the Magistrate had not followed the Criminal Code.

The Court of Criminal Appeal, presided by madam justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera upheld the appeal filed by the Attorney General in the case against Maria Agius, Joseph Agius, Mark Agius and Anthony George Bugeja.

The four defendants had been declared not guilty last September of negligently causing damage to the historical fortifications in April 2018, when development works underway in an adjacent property had caused the house of character’s back wall to collapse.

The construction of the boutique hotel in Victoria’s Independence Square, had been the subject of much controversy, with additional storeys being built obscuring the view of the historic clock tower from It‐Tokk, Gozo's main square and the collapsed wall being rebuilt with apertures within the Citadel walls.

It had been during building works carried out at the site, under the guidance of architect Saviour Micallef, that the house’s parapet wall and counterscarp had collapsed, leading to the Planning Authority temporarily suspending all works there.

Separate court proceedings had been filed against the architect in relation to the incident.

Deciding the case last week, the judge observed that the Court of Magistrates in Gozo had ignored the testimony gathered during the inquiry by court experts and that the Planning Authority had not been allowed to appear and participate in the case together with the prosecution, when it had a specific legal right to do so.

The judge said that it “clearly emerged” that the court of first instance had not followed the Criminal Code, as the examination of the accused and the Attorney General’s consent for the case to be tried summarily were both nowhere to be found in the acts of the case.

Despite this, the Court of Magistrates had not continued hearing the case in its competence as a court of compilation, but had instead proceeded as a court of criminal judicature. “This court is of the understanding that the First Court had not taken the correct decision according to law,” concluded the judge, ruling that there was a lack of essential formalities in the Gozo proceedings.

The judgment acquitting the accused was therefore declared null and without effect, with the court sending the acts of the case back to the Court of Magistrates in Gozo to be heard again from the beginning.

Inspector Bernard Charles Spiteri prosecuted.