Court overturns acquittal, finds three men guilty of holding journalists against their will at Castille

The Criminal Court has overturned the acquittal of three men charged with holding a group of journalists against their will after a tense late-night Castille press conference in November 2019.

Jody Pisani, Mark Gauci and Emanuel McKay had been cleared of holding Monique Agius, Miguela Xuereb, Julian Bonnici and Paul Caruana Galizia against their will inside the Auberge de Castille on 29 November at around 3am.

But this morning, Judge Aaron Bugeja upheld the AG’s appeal and overturned the acquittal, finding the three men guilty. Reading out the final part of the judgement in court, the judge said that in the particular context of this case, the men were being conditionally discharged for six months. The judge warned them that committing another offence in that period will result in them also being punished for this offence.

Journalists Monique Agius, Miguela Xuereb, Julian Bonnici and Paul Caruana Galizia had been covering an impromptu press conference at Castille on 29 November 2019, during the extraordinary and turbulent events at the tail end of disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s tenure. 

That night the cabinet had discussed and ultimately rejected a request for a presidential pardon made by Yorgen Fenech, the businessman indicted with complicity in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

After the tense press conference was over, the journalists had been prevented from leaving Castille, by what appeared to be a group of plainclothes security guards. The incident was captured on mobile phone footage.

A police report was subsequently filed and the men were charged with detaining the journalists against their will inside the Auberge de Castille during the incident.

In 2020 Magistrate Joe Mifsud had acquitted the men, criticising the police investigation for not establishing the identity of the person who had ordered the door to be closed and observing that no physical force had been used against the reporters. The magistrate had shifted the blame on the journalists, saying that they had expected to take over the building and had been part of a “free for all” which was not acceptable in any building, be it governmental or private.

The Attorney General had subsequently filed an appeal against the judgement, which was decided today. The decision, which is yet to be published in full, overturned the acquittal and found the men guilty of the charges.

Lawyer Etienne Savone represented the Office of the Attorney General in this case. Lawyers Ramona Attard, Charlon Gouder and Matthew Xuereb were defence counsel. Lawyers Michael Zammit Maempel and Peter Caruana Galizia appeared as parte civile.