Human trafficking trial: witnesses say they didn’t see any irregular immigrants

Stephen Magro, who used to carry out maintenance work in the Marsalforn guesthouse belonging to the accused Joseph Vella, testified that he had known Vella for 18 years. He said that at the time a certain Frans Franculli from Marsalforn used to manage the guesthouse.

Magro testified that Vella used to take the irregular immigrants hiding in his guesthouse downstairs to eat around midnight after alerting them by whistling at them. Magro added that at the time the only black people in Gozo were football players. Indeed he identified one of the men in the bar as a footballer.

When he heard that Vella had been arrested, he offered to stand as witness since he had never seen anything bad going on.

The witness also stated that at the time, Vella, known as Joe 'tal-ilma', had some problems with his wife. He said that when Franculli was there, Vella would only visit the guesthouse briefly and leave quickly.

Another witness, Alfred Attard, stated that has known Vella for around 13 years. In July 2003, he was a car dealer and sometimes also worked as a security guard. The co-accused Vella had phoned him in early July since he wanted him to spy on his wife.

Attard followed Vella's wife and her partner both in Gozo and Malta, and identified him as a businessman in Valletta. In the end he passed on the photographs to Vella. At that point in time, Vella asked him to protect him round the clock since he was scared.

Attard said he had acted as Vella’s bodyguard between a fortnight and three weeks. He would go to Malta once a week to carry out some errands, and on those days, a certain policeman by the name of Johnny would be with Vella instead. During that period whenever he was in the guesthouse, Attard said he never saw black people but only lots of Maltese.

In cross-examination, the prosecution pointed out that the witness was found guilty of misappropriation in the past, despite his denying that he hasn't had any trouble with the law.

Dr Manuel Mallia stated that Frans Scerri could not stand as witness since he is currently in hospital.

Dr Lara Lanfranco for the prosecution emphasised that the irregular immigrants had not provided vague information but had pointed out Azzopardi and Vella very clearly by their names. Indeed only those who were in the guesthouse mentioned Vella. This is in view that the defence had argued that the accused were being framed.

She added that the irregular immigrants would have had no personal interest in stating the persons helping them escape since they were then sent back to the detention centre.

The jury is expected to started deliberating tomorrow.