Looking back at 2018 | Femicide and financial crime take centre-stage

What a year it has been. From a court reporter’s perspective, 2018 has been one of the busiest years in a long time.

Featuring mostly a continuation of cases which started in 2017 and preceding years, 2018 also brought with it a sprinkling of important judgments and landmark rulings that rocked the legal profession, such as the decision to rule all police statements issued without a lawyer present as in breach of human rights.

Narrowing down the approximately 850 court stories published in 2018 to find the most striking ones is no simple task, but here’s a shortlist of the cases which truly stood out this year.

Panama

A decision in the Panama Papers Inquiry case is finally in sight, after a judge gave parties a deadline to make their final submissions in writing in December.

The case began last year after former leader of the Opposition, Simon Busuttil, filed a request to Magistrate Ian Farrugia for a magisterial inquiry to be opened into money laundering allegations involving high-ranking government ministers and officials.

Magistrate Farrugia upheld the request but the men filed appeals. The appeals were assigned to Mr. Justice Antonio Mizzi, leading Busuttil to request the recusal of the judge given that he was married to Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi. The request was turned down, weeks before Mizzi was due to retire, with the cases then assigned to Mr. Justice Giovanni Grixti after Mizzi’s retirement.

Grixti was given the task of hearing the seven individual appeals, filed by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff Keith Schembri, Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, businessmen Brian Tonna, Karl Cini, Malcolm Scerri and Adrian Hillman against Magistrate Ian Farrugia’s decision to launch an inquiry into money laundering allegations and establish whether money-laundering laws were breached by government officials in opening offshore companies in Panama, as well as opaque financial structures in New Zealand.

In December Mizzi filed a Constitutional case claiming the lengthy proceedings are breaching his human rights.

Lifeline

The case against Lifeline Captain Claus Peter Reisch drags on into the New Year. The captain of the humanitarian sea rescue vessel was charged last July with having steered the ship into Maltese territorial waters without the necessary registration and licences.

Lifeline captain Claus Peter Reisch (centre) and his lawyers Cedric Mifsud (left) and Neil Falzon (right) address the press after a court sitting

Reisch’s arrest shone an international media spotlight on Malta’s handling of the seaborne illegal immigration crisis.

Reisch took the witness stand in December, saying he didn’t need permission to rescue people in distress at sea because it’s the law.

Daphne Caruana Galizia

The shockwave from the cold-blooded 2017 murder of journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia continued to reverberate in 2018 in every news sector, not least in court.

Aside from the compilation of evidence against the three men accused of her murder and a number of related Constitutional proceedings, a secondary court battle between the authorities and activist Manuel Delia arose from Occupy Justice’s use of the Great Siege memorial in front of the law courts which was turned into a makeshift memorial to the slain journalist.

Activists place flowers and candles at the foot of the Great Siege memorial shortly after it was cleared by government workers

Murders which shocked the nation

Several terrible murders were committed this year. Michael Emmanuel, 28, was accused of murdering his partner, Maria Lourdes Agius, at the family home in Paola in September.

Agius was a mother to seven children, three of who were fathered by Emanuel. Autopsy results revealed that Agius was strangled.
Earlier, in August, 30-year-old Shannon Mak from Holland was brutally murdered, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend Jelle Rijpma, who had spontaneously confessed to the murder whilst being interrogated, a court was told.

Rijpma, now charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend had allegedly told police how he had grabbed a knife during an argument between the two and slashed the woman’s throat on the street.

Paceville mogul Hugo Chetcuti was murdered in July in a stabbing at one of his own establishments. Bojan Cmelik, a former employee of Hugo Chetcuti’s has been charged with the murder.

Paceville mogul Hugo Chetcuti was murdered in July in a stabbing at one of his own establishments. Bojan Cmelik, a former employee of Hugo Chetcuti’s has been charged with the murder

Alberto Chang Rajii

Alberto Chang Rajii, who is wanted in Chile to face charges of investment fraud through a Ponzi scheme run by his company Grupo Arcano, won his extradition battle and will stay in Malta. He had been arrested in Malta in 2016 and released on bail against a €100,000 deposit. He is now a free man, his extradition having been barred by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Paqpaqli

Court cases borne of the supercar accident at Paqpaqli Ghall-Istrina are for the most part winding down this year, with some victims receiving compensation from the Malta Community Chest Fund and others in out of court settlements. President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca testified in February telling the court of her anguish at the plight of the victims, but distancing herself from the organisation of the event. Meanwhile, the compilation of evidence in criminal proceedings against the event organisers continues.

Some victims received compensation from the Malta Community Chest Fund over the 2015 Paqpaqli supercar crash

Erin Tanti

The compilation of evidence against Erin Tanti has ended with him being placed under a bill of indictment to stand trial for the murder of Lisa Maria Zahra.

Tanti had filed an appeal to the court’s rejection of his objections to the Bill of Indictment and insisted that the Attorney General could not accuse him both of murder and with assisting a suicide, as the charges were alternative to each other.

Rare presidential intervention in bail

President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca invoked a rarely-used power to grant sick prisoner Christopher Bartolo bail pending a decision on his appeal by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The announcement was made upon the recommendation of Cabinet on the basis of a specific provision in the Criminal Code allowing the President to grant Bartolo bail.

Bartolo is currently serving a five-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of trafficking 1.5kg of cannabis last February.

“Heroin Highway” jury

Herman McKay, who was facing the prospect of a life sentence on charges of trafficking heroin walked out of court a free man last March, having been put on probation instead.

McKay, 34, from Marsa, was acquitted by a jury of trafficking half a kilogram of heroin, with the court finding him guilty of simple possession of the drug instead.

McKay had been arrested in his hometown in August 2007 and had allegedly tried to throw the drugs from his car, where they spilled onto the road.

Piss poor

And what would the year be without someone being caught with his pants down? Cue: the story about the drunk man who ended up being fined €4,050 for attacking police whilst urinating in public.

Here’s to another crazy year in court. Hip hip!