Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech to continue presiding over Josef Majri criminal proceedings

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech will continue to preside over the criminal proceedings against Josef Majri, rejecting Majri’s request for her recusal.

Majri is charged, together with three others, with laundering the proceeds of drug deals by placing bets on sporting events. He was accused of threatening and insulting lawyer Andrea Zammit, the prosecutor in his money laundering case, which is being presided over by Frendo Dimech.

Earlier this month, Zammit had testified in separate criminal proceedings against Majri, telling the court that he had called the magistrate to inform her of a chance encounter with Majri at a Valletta bar during which the man had allegedly made a threatening gesture towards the prosecutor.

Zammit told the court that he had called up Frendo Dimech because he feared for his safety and stressed that he had not attempted to influence the outcome of Majri’s case.

Pointing to Zammit’s testimony, Majri’s lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb requested magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech’s recusal on Tuesday.

In a decree handed down yesterday, Frendo Dimech rejected the recusal request, pointing out that she had not reached out to Zammit, but that it had been the prosecutor who had contacted her “for reasons known only to him” to inform the court about the incident, 48 hours after it happened.

The magistrate had brought this to the attention of the parties in open court, she said, to avoid pointlessly deviating attention from the money laundering proceedings against Majri, which had already reached an advanced stage at that point.

She also stated that Zammit had never made reference to the merits of the proceedings against Majri during the conversation, and had only told him that if he felt the need to, he could file a court application, ruling that therefore there was no reason to justify her recusal or substitution.

During Tuesday’s sitting, Frendo Dimech rebuked the prosecuting police inspector for choosing to arraign Majri over the incident, since the defendant had already received a warning about it from the magistrate in open court. The charges had now created a situation of double jeopardy for Majri.

There had been no mention of feeling threatened when the prosecutor had dictated a note in court about the incident, said the magistrate, questioning why the decision had been taken to arraign Majri under arrest.

The case continues in September.

Lawyers Francesca Zarb and Franco Debono are assisting Majri.