Bail for man in alleged threat to civil servant in ethics’ breach saga

Joseph Borg, 75 of Swieqi, was released on bail this afternoon after spending four nights in jail, after he was charged for sending a threatening email with an email to Rita Schembri, the permanent secretary at the Internal Audit Investigations Department (IAID).

A defiant Joseph Borg walked out of court this afternoon after depositing €2,000 and making a personal guarantee of €8,000 at the end of a five hour sitting before Magistrate Anthony Vella, stating that he had a "clear conscience" and was "determined to fight his case."

Businessman Joseph Borg was charged of having threatened Schembri in an email he sent on November 19, warning her that she had "24 hours to redeem" herself with the sub-lessees of his restaurant. Schembri leased Borg's restaurant and then sub-leased it to other parties, without notifying Borg, in breach of the lease agreement.

Borg's son-in-law Simon Balzan today told the court that a tenant of the restaurant that Schembri sub-leased from Borg, was allegedly approached by Schembri's husband Mark, and proposed to pool in €10,000 "to have Joe Borg eliminated, and make it look as a suicide."

Balzan claimed that Omar Granata, a neighbour of his, had told him that Mark Schembri approached him proposing to put together €10,000 because "he knew people who would give [Borg] a beating, throw him into the sea, and make it look like a suicide."

Granata was sub-leased Borg's restaurant by Rita Schembri for €28,000, but later realised he was not meant to pay this sum to Schembri. It turns out that Schembri had to pay a third of this sum to Borg as part of her lease agreement with him, but she never notified Borg of her sub-lessee.

But when called to testify, Granata denied being under threat from Mark Schembri or knowing of the proposed plot alleged by Balzan.

 Witness Omar Granata

Borg had also made a reference to this alleged plot towards the end of his email to Schembri, and prosecuting inspector Chris Pullicino asked the court for guidance as to whether it was prudent to caution Granata on the evidence he was giving.

Simon Balzan said that he was also informed about the alleged plot by Omar Granata's brother Chris, who is a policeman.

At this point, Magistrate Vella asked how could it have been possible that an investigation was not launched, when a policeman allegedly knew of such a plot.

Inspector Pullicino replied that this is why he requested the witness to be cautioned, as the email "may have been motivated by the allegation" - Pullicino also said that during his investigations into the case, he had so far found no evidence of such a plot.

Granata said that after many years, he was approached by Borg in 2009 who asked him why he was still not chasing the €28,000 he had paid the Schembri's for the sub lease.

The witness said that he had no faith in the justice system, prompting Magistrate Vella to smile. Granata added that when the media had reported the resignation of John Dalli as European Commissioner, the latter having implicated Rita Schembri in his case, he remembered telling Joseph Borg that the Schembris still owed him €28,000.

Asked again by lawyer Edward DeBono whether he was feeling threatened or scared of Mark Schembri, the witness replied in the negative.

Called to testify, Mark Schembri said he was a care worker, and while not being directly asked about the alleged plot, he was asked by Pullicino on whether he ever engaged in any criminal activity. "I am a care worker, and my record is clean. Without that I cannot do such a job," was Schembri's reply.

Mark Schembri was visibly agitated when asked questions by both the prosecuting inspector and defence lawyer Edward Debono, and hesitated to admit that he asked for and received payment from Omar Granata for the subletting of a restaurant which belonged to Joseph Borg.

He was hesitant in his replies to Borg's lawyer, when asked about two court judgments which ruled that the sub-lease was irregular, with the latest judgement handed in 2009 stating that the sub-lease was "fraudulent" leading to the evication of the Schembris from the premises.

"I don't know what to say...I gave everything to my lawyer, it's my wife who also deals with these things," Mark Schembri told the court as his lawyer Pio Valletta, stood close by, at times suggesting by whisper the replies he was to give.

Intervening at times to calm both lawyers who argued over how the witnesses were handled, more arguments erupted between Valletta and Debono when Rita Schembri was called to the witness stand to explain why she filed the police report, and why she felt aggrieved by the email sent by Borg.

She denied having ever been ordered to pay Borg any money or that she had been asked to reimburse the families of Ben Kingsley and Omar Granata,  the two sub-lessees who rented the restaurant from her but which she never declared to Borg as according to their agreement.

Schembri told the court that Borg tried to inflict maximum damage by reporting her to OLAF - the EU's anti-fraud office - on whose supervisory committee she sits.

In previous court litigation with Borg, Schembri had been ordered to vacate his premises. Her answer to Borg's defence counsel today when confronted about the fact that she had "fraudulently" sub-leased the premises to third parties was: "I don't know what to tell you, I'm not a lawyer."

Borg's email

In an email sent on 19 November, Borg - who in the 1980s had blew the whistle on the land-grab scandals perpetrated by the late Labour minister Lorry Sant and his acolyte Pio Camilleri - told Schembri that if she failed to reimburse the family of the sub-lessees, he would report her to OLAF.

"I am giving you 24 hours to redeem yourself of past mischievous conducts, not that you deserve such a choice, before I give all details to OLAF, as per their request," Borg wrote to Schembri in an email.

He wrote that she must reimburse the family of Ben Kingsley with Lm26,500 (€53,000) and Omar Granata with €28,000. "In the absence of your acceptance I shall reply to OLAF, submitting all documents which I have already prepared... You should also consider an honourable way out of this mess to avoid unnecessary involvement to the Office of the PM."

Concluding his email, Borg told Schembri that that "threats" would not stop him from "defending honest but gullible persons from succumbing to devious promises carried out for unlawful financial gain".

Schembri said that she was in Brussels on November 19 when Borg had sent the email on the IAID's generic email address, and she was informed about it by her subordinate Mario Debono from her office in Valletta that he found the email from Borg.

Debono forwarded her the email, while she immediately informed the Principal Permanent Secretary within the Office of the Prime Minister Godwin Grima.

At this point, Schembri informed the court that she had been approached by Grima a few days before asking her if she was being threatened by "somebody."

"I replied in the negative because at that time I had no idea that Borg had already sent Grima the email, and didn't know about its contents," she said.

Schembri claimed that besides Godwin Grima, she informed her lawyer Pio Valletta about it, who advised her to report the case to the Commissioner of Police.

Under cross examination, Schembri said that it was Joseph Borg's right to report any irregularity to OLAF adding however, that "he had no right to threaten me."

She insisted that she didn't want to silence Borg with her report to the police and his subsequent arraignment.

"We are a civil democracy and the courts decide on any perceived wrongdoing by anybody," Schembri stressed, revealing also that in the past Borg had also reported her the the Chamber of Auditors over the same matter.

The case is adjourned for next Tuesday, as the police are expected to summon Police Constable Chris Granata about the alleged information he had about the plot to have Borg killed and thrown into the sea, and Principle Permanent Secretary Godwin Grima, who informed the court he could not attend today's sitting because he had an EU delegation.