Transport Malta Enforcement Director gets bail after sexual harassment charges

Transport Malta’s Director of Enforcement, Clint Axisa, has been arraigned in court under arrest, charged with sexually harassing employees and committing an offence that he was duty bound to prevent.

At the end of the 45-minute sitting, Axisa was released on bail against a €10,000 deposit and €30,000 personal guarantee, also being ordered to reside at a different address, as he lived close to one of his alleged victim’s parents.

Tensions were perceptibly high in magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit’s courtroom this afternoon as Axisa, 42, of Fgura was arraigned by Inspectors Joseph Busuttil and Paul Camilleri.

He was charged with committing a non-consensual sexual act on one woman by abusing his position as a public official, harassing her and another woman, subjecting them to an act of physical intimacy, making unwelcome advances which could be considered as “offensive, humiliating, degrading or intimidatory,” and committing an offence which he was duty bound to ensure did not take place.

The accused hugged and kissed his wife as he was led into the courtroom at 2pm, immediately earning himself a rebuke from the magistrate.

Axisa, who was assisted by lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Herman Mula, pleaded not guilty to the charges and requested bail.

Inspector Busuttil exhibited the accused’s mobile phone and requested the court appoint an expert to analyse its contents. The court instructed him to exhibit it when the case is assigned to the compiling magistrate.

The prosecution objected to the bail request, pointing out that the charges, which carried a minimum punishment of three to seven years imprisonment, were also aggravated due to his position as a public official.

Axisa interrupted the inspector, protesting that “I’m not a public official.” After ordered to be quiet by his lawyers and the magistrate, Busuttil continued, explaining that he also lived right across the road from the parents of one of the alleged victims.

Busuttil told court the police had spoken to some 10 other potential witnesses, and found that they had already been spoken to individually by Axisa, who allegedly gave them a briefing and demanded that they back him up.

“There are also people who he met with after office hours, asking to them to back him up,” suggested the inspector.

Axisa gesticulated more or less constantly during his arraignment, at times standing up and interrupting, other times shaking his head, or sobbing loudly for a short period of time.

“Apart from approaching all of these witnesses, he also offered a sum of money to the victim’s father,” the inspector went on, to groans of disbelief from defence and protestations of innocence by the accused.

Two victims were mentioned in the charges, said the inspector, one of whom suffers from mental health issues and is deemed vulnerable.

Busuttil accused Axisa of only showing the police innocuous chats on his mobile phone, and failing to show them other chats where he “tried to influence other witnesses.”

The inspector explained that before being spoken to, the accused had already been made aware of the investigation through media reports.

While the accused shook his head and mimed disbelief, defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi argued his client had spoken to the witnesses in connection with separate internal disciplinary procedures, which were due to be held on Monday, but are now suspended.

“He is already suspended from work,” submitted Azzopardi. “The version given by the victim is already preserved and is in writing, as the case was going to be brought before a disciplinary board. The defence had been given a copy of this during the interrogation. Axisa had been questioned about the contents during his interrogation. So how can she possibly change her version?”

Axisa listed his witnesses for the Monday sitting and this had been given to the police, who were also given the witnesses’ phone numbers. “But the police have not contacted all of them, despite having 48 hours to do so. Why not? “

While his lawyer was making these arguments, Axisa was rocking back and forth, making pleading hand gestures to the magistrate.

“The prosecutor has not yet even realised how little they have understood [one victim’s] version of events, because in the period specified, she was not even working at Transport Malta.”

“Why all these games? Because he’s Clint Axisa?” asked the lawyer.

He conceded the accused and the victim’s father had communicated with one of the victims, explaining they were neighbours. “What was he supposed to do?” Azzopardi submitted, only to be interrupted by the police inspector, who told the court that Axisa had “offered money to her father and father in-law.”

Axisa piped up again, shouting that “it started almost three weeks ago. There was nothing in my hands, it [the complaint and disciplinary proceedings] was just a rumour at the authority. I didn’t even have a paper.”

Azzopardi continued. “Jurisprudence is clear, Axisa is not a public official,” he submitted, saying that there were judgments in this regard given by other magistrates in similar cases.

Bail was initially not going to be granted, the court telling Axisa that his many interruptions showed it that he “evidently had difficulty controlling his impulses.”

Azzopardi argued the man had a clean criminal record, which was also contested by the prosecution. He told the court that the man’s uncle and his wife were willing to step in as a third party guarantors, that the accused had cooperated with the police, was currently suspended from his duties, and that his mobile was already in evidence.

“If he’s not going to be given bail today, when? December?” said Azzopardi, drawing the attention of the court to the timing of the arraignment.

Marion Camilleri, appearing parte civile for the victims together with lawyer Franco Debono, said she had no objection to bail.

Lawyer Herman Mula, also defending Axisa, told the court that the prosecution “put the cart before the horse. He did nothing yesterday,” but Busuttil insisted that Axisa had offered the father money.

The court announced that it would be granting Axisa bail. Upon hearing this the accused started to cry, tearlessly, in huge shuddering sobs. 

When asked where he would be living, as he could not continue to reside next door to the father of one of the complainants, Axisa repeatedly told the court that, besides his Fgura home, he also owned properties in Tarxien, Zejtun and Valletta and so could be ordered to live in one of them.

Bail was granted against a deposit of €10,000 and a personal guarantee of €30,000, Axisa being ordered to sign a bail book three times a week, surrender his ID card. He was also forbidden from contacting the victims or their families.