Former deputy commissioner unable to recall details on police investigations into Pilatus Bank

Former deputy commissioner of police Alexandra Mamo, was unable to recall details about a number of aspects related to the police investigations into Pilatus Bank, when testifying in court on Monday.

Mamo, who today is a practising lawyer, was cross-examined by lawyer Jason Azzopardi on the witness stand as part of ongoing challenge proceedings filed by Repubblika, who are requesting that a court order the Commissioner of Police to press charges against senior officials at Pilatus bank.

In a Facebook post uploaded after today’s sitting before magistrate Nadine Sant Lia, Repubblika’s honorary president Robert Aquilina said that Mamo had confirmed the authenticity of emails that Aquilina had published last year.

But Mamo said she could not remember what the US authorities had replied to questions sent about a $1.1 million transaction “allegedly involving Egrant,” nor what criminal offences she had asked to be listed in the nolle prosequi that was subsequently issued for bank officials Antoniella Jane Gauci and Mehmet Tasli.

READ ALSO: No serious effort by police to extradite Pilatus officials, Robert Aquilina tells court

“Alexandra Mamo doesn’t remember whether she had asked for assistance through embassies so that Joseph Muscat’s friend, Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, be found and arrested abroad. Alexandra Mamo doesn’t know or doesn’t remember which of Magistrate Ian Farrugia’s orders she and Angelo Gafa had obeyed,” Aquilina wrote on Facebook.

What Mamo did clearly recall, Aquila said, was that Gafa had been present when important decisions about the Pilatus scandal were taken.

“Everybody brushing off responsibility. Everybody forgetting. This is omerta!” Aquilina said, adding that Gafa had refused to give an explanation "with the excuse that he would eventually give his account in court under oath."

He pointed out that today the police had concluded their witnesses and Gafa had not been one of them.

The case will continue next month.