Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Cassar said that when questioned by the police in connection with a report claiming irregularities in the award of this tender, Joseph Zahra said that the offer was made by SIMED International vice-president Sietse Zoodsma.

Mr Cassar was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Zahra, 50, from Marsascala, who is being accused of falsely giving the impression of incriminating evidence, making false accusations against third persons, filing a false report, and circulating unfounded, alarming rumours.

The witness told the Magistrates Court presided over by Magistrate Giovanni Grixti that on 15 July 2004, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi asked Police Commissioner John Rizzo to investigate about allegations in a report by private investigator Joe Zahra.

The witness said the PM told the Police Commissioner that the report had been passed to him by Dr Joe Fenech, legal consultant for SIMED International.

The report addressed to SIMED International, dated 25 February 2004, alleged that on 26 May 2002 there had been a meeting in Naples with Marco Fontanelli (Director of Operations INSO), and other INSO representatives in which Claudine Cassar took part on her behalf and her father’s behalf.

The father of Cassar-Managing Director of Alert Communications-is director of contracts Joseph Spiteri.

The report alleged that at the time, there had been three calls between Ms Cassar and Sebastian Dalli and two calls between Ms Cassar and her father.

It was alleged that a second meeting was held between Mr Fontanelli, the other INSO representatives, including Gianluca Peroni, and Ms Cassar in Florence on 14 November 2002.

On 10 November 2003, the report alleged that Mr Fontanelli (Director of Operations at INSO) called Ms Cassar to prepare for the second meeting.

The report alleged as well that Mr Dalli took part in a meeting abroad in connection with the case.

On 30 December 2003, the report alleged that there was a SWIFT transaction of 2.3 million Euros from a bank account in Italy controlled by Mr Fontanelli to a bank account in London as “part payment”.

On 12 January 2004, the report alleged, the money was transferred from London to a bank account in Hong Kong.

On 19 July 2004, the police investigations began. They were led by Mr Rizzo, Deputy Commissioner Joseph Cachia and himself.

When the police spoke to Dr Fenech, he said that he was the legal representative of SIMED International of Holland together with Dr Raphael Fenech Adami.

Dr Fenech told the police that he had his doubts as to how the tender for the medical equipment at Mater Dei Hospital was awarded.

“We found it strange that a Lm30m tender was given for all the equipment of the hospital – for everything from brooms to sophisticated machinery,” he told the police.

The SIMED International lawyer told the police that they had suspected corruption, therefore SIMED International engaged Joseph Zahra as a private investigator to investigate.

Dr Fenech told the police Zahra had claimed that he had contacts with the Italian Secret Service and that there were recorded telephone conversations between Mr Dalli and Ms Cassar.

The SIMED International lawyer told the police about the contents of the report that Zahra submitted to SIMED International.

Dr Fenech told the police that the Dutch Prime Minister had a copy of the report as well.

The police then spoke to Dr Frank Farrugia, who has been the representative of SIMED International in Malta for the past five to six years.

Dr Farrugia told the police that SIMED International had applied for the tender for the medical equipment at Mater Dei hospital as part of a consortium.

The SIMED International representative told the police that in May/June 2003 rumours were circulating that the tender was going to be awarded to INSO and that INSO had been allowed to change documents in the tender specifications after the closing date.

Dr Farrugia told the police that SIMED International had engaged Joe Zahra after seeing his advert in the yellow pages.

The SIMED International representative told the police he met Zahra once at length together with Dr Fenech and Dr Fenech Adami. It was this time that Zahra passed the report.

Dr Farrugia told the police that the report dated 21 July 2003 claimed that Ms Cassar went to Italy on work at the end of 2002.

The SIMED International representative told the police that according to the report, during her trip to Italy she passed messages to and from her father, Mr Spiteri.

Dr Farrugia told the police the report claimed that there had been a meeting between Mr Fontanelli and Ms Cassar in Naples, among other things.

The SIMED International representative told the police that they lost contact with Zahra after he submitted the first report.

Dr Farrugia told the police that on 29 December 2003, Zahra was engaged again by SIMED International to investigate after the contract was awarded again to INSO after the appeal.

The police then spoke to Alfred Triganza, chairman of the appeals board, who explained how the appeals procedure worked.

The next person the police spoke to was Joe Zahra himself, who gave an audio statement on two tapes. Mr Cassar presented the tapes of the statement in court.

Zahra told the police he had been appointed by SIMED International to investigate about the award of the tender for the medical equipment at Mater Dei Hospital.

The accused told the police that he had been practicing as private investigator since 1992 but had no licence for this activity.

Zahra told the police that he had given two reports to SIMED International - one of them on 25 February 2004 (the one passed to the Prime Minister) and the other one on 21 July 2003.

The accused told the police that he had been paid Lm800 for the first report plus Lm3,000 in expenses, but had not been paid yet for the second one.

Zahra told the police that he had collected the information in the reports had been collected and investigated by himself but he did not have the evidence himself but this was held by third parties.

The accused, according to the police, did not reveal who the third parties were but told them that they could get the information themselves.

Zahra told the police that he went to Italy where he listened to a tape of a conversation between Mr Dalli and Ms Cassar about a bank account in England.

The accused told the police that he only heard Mr Dalli’s voice once on this tape.

Zahra told the police that Mr Zoodsna was pressing him for “hard evidence”.

However the accused told the police that his reply was that his sources were asking for Lm9,000 to release hard evidence.

Zahra told the police that at this point, in order to dissuade him, he told Mr Zoodsna that the sources were upping their stakes and were asking for Lm1 million to release the evidence.

However the accused told the police that Mr Zoodsna continued insisting to get the evidence, and he replied that he should go to the police because they could get the information legitimately.

Zahra told the police that Mr Zoodsna offered him 3 per cent of the value of the tender if the evidence he supplied would lead to the tender being taken away from INSO and awarded to SIMED International.

However the accused told the police his reply was that his contacts were not going to release the evidence because they were going to be left out of the deal.

Asked by the police to reveal who his sources were, Zahra told them that he was bound by professional secrecy.

The police offered protection to the accused and his informers but he did not accept.

As to the bank transactions mentioned in the more recent report, Zahra said that he had gone to London with Italian informers of his who had good contacts there.

The accused told the police he accompanied his informers to the bank, but they refused to let him in. However, Zahra also told the police that he had paid for the informers’ trip to England.

The witness said that Zahra was “very evasive” in his answers to the police. At this point, the accused was cautioned that he had the right to remain silent and that everything he said could be brought as evidence against him.

The accused said at first that he was not going to continue giving the statement because he was now a suspect, but nonetheless he replied to the questions of the police.

The witness described Zahra’s replies to the police at this point as “dubious”.

The accused told the police that the information was at his informers but he did not want to reveal who the informers were.

The witness said that at this point, Zahra told the police that “the whole affairs went over my head” and admitted that the facts claimed in his report as well as in the initial part of his statement had been “all invented” by him.

Asked by the police why he had invented matters of such a serious nature, the accused replied that he had done so because of the insistence of Mr Zoodsna.

Zahra told the police that he had never assumed that his claims would have reached such high places.

The accused told the police that Dr Fenech had warned him that he was going to present his more recent report to the PM.

Zahra told the police that he was thinking of tell somebody that “it had been all a fabrication” and was even thinking of going to the Police Commissioner about the matter, but never did so.

The accused told the police that he had sourced the information in his reports from the internet.

The witness said that the police then went to Zahra’s residence, where Police Inspector Paul Caruana lifted a computer.

The accused also gave to the police his assignment file, a diskette and a CD.

The police then spoke to Ms Cassar, who said that her only knowledge about the tender for the Medical Equipment at the Mater Dei hospital came from what her father said at home about the matter.

She denied to the police knowing personally Mr Dalli but knew about him from the press.

Ms Cassar said she did not know any of the other persons or circumstances mentioned in the accused’s reports.

She denied meeting Mr Fontanelli in Naples and Florence as claimed in Zahra’s reports. In the case of the second meeting, she said that she had been expecting a child very soon.

The witness said that when the police checked the immigration records, there had been no departures by Ms Cassar on the dates indicated by the accused in his more recent report.

The police then spoke to director of contracts Joseph Spiteri, who gave an account of the proceedings in the award of the tender for the medical equipment at Mater Dei Hospital.

Another person to who the police spoke was Sebastian Dalli, who denied any connection to the case. He told the police that his specialisation was construction.

Mr Dalli told the police he did not know Ms Cassar but knew Mr Spiteri (her father) because he has tendered for public contracts.

He told the police that he had not been to Naples or Florence and that he had not gone abroad for quite some time.

“It was clear that Joe Zahra’s report (the more recent one) was a hoax,” the witness told the court.

Cross-examined by Dr Joseph Giglio for the defence, the witness said that the police had asked the accused to reveal who his sources were.

However, “the context of the investigations” had to be taken into consideration, Mr Cassar said.

Dr Joe Fenech told the court that he, together with Dr Raphael Fenech Adami, was the legal consultant of SIMED International in connection with the appeal of the award of the tenders for the medical equipment at Mater Dei Hospital.

He said he was told that SIMED International had appointed a private investigator. In February the private investigator gave them a report which contained a number of serious accusations.

Dr Fenech said that the chairman of SIMED International had come to Malta and wanted to speak to the accused.

They met Zahra at the Corinthia Hotel and told him that the allegations he was making were serious and they needed the evidence. Zahra replied that he had the evidence but could not reveal it.

Dr Fenech told the court Zahra said he had listened personally to the tapes and that he had seen personally the bank account numbers listed in his report.

He said the accused told him that he was ready to confirm under oath in front of a Magistrate the contents of the report.

The witness said that in June 2004, he spoke again to Zahra and urged him to get documents proving what is in the report.

Dr Fenech said he told the accused that if he did not get these documents, he was going to pass the case to the authorites, who would surely pass on the case to the police.

The witness said that he did then pass the report to the Prime Minister. Shortly after doing so, Dr Fenech said he met Zahra and told him that he had passed the report to Dr Gonzi.

Dr Fenech said he told the accused that the PM had asked for “more evidence,” and Zahra replied that he would try to get the evidence.

The witness said he told the accused that Dr Gonzi would not have the case lie down.

Dr Fenech said that the police commissioner had spoke to him about the contents of the report around a month ago.

The witness said he had only seen a single report by Zahra, which he identified in court as the one dated 25 February 2004.

Police Inspector Joseph Abdilla testified about his involvement in the investigations alongside Superintend Peter Paul Zammit from the police prosecutions unit in drafting the charges against the accused.

Police Inspector Paul Caruana from the cybercrime unit told the Court how he and a police constable elevated a computer from Zahra’s residence in Marsascala, as well as an orange folder (Zahra’s file for this assignment), a floppy disk and a CD-ROM.

The witness produced in Court the hard disk from this computer, as well as the CD-ROM and the floppy disk.

Insp. Caruana said that among the files found in Zahra’s storage media there were two scans of an agreement bearing a number of signatures including one by Joseph Zahra and another by Sietse Zoodsna.

The police also found a word document containing Zahra’s February 2004 report, as well as traces of e-mails between the accused and Mr Zoodsna.

Inspector Caruana explained that when data analysis is carried out, the original data is never touched but a mirror copy is made and the analysis is carried out on the copied data in order to preserve the original evidence.

At this point, the court ruled that sufficient evidence had been presented for a bill of indictment to be drawn up against the accused.

Dr Michael Scriha, who was appearing as parte civile for Ms Cassar and Mr Spiteri, objected to this ruling.

He said that the people not connected to the case who had been mentioned during the proceedings could not testify and defend their integrity.

The defence said it had no objection to the request by the parte civile, but the court maintained its original ruling.

At the beginning of the proceedings, Dr Giglio complained that since this case started being investigated, there were “particular sections of the media” who were entering into “matters that are not pertinent” to the case.

“We have been told that the accused was in the police force at the time when Lawrence Pullicino was Commissioner - as if all the people who served in the police force at the time had committed some wrongdoing,” he said.

He also took objection to reports claiming that the Prime Minister had been blackmailed by the accused or that the accused had asked the Prime Minister for a million Liri.

This pre-trial publicity, Dr Giglio said, violated the accused’s right to a fair hearing and called on the court to issue a ban all publications on the case except the proceedings in court.

The court said it was not clear whether it had any jurisdiction on what is said outside the courtroom but definitely had the right to take disciplinary action about reports of proceedings in court.

Dr Giglio said that in the cases of Meinrad Calleja and Emanuel Camilleri, the courts had given such publication bans.

Without entering into the merits of “what might have been reported in the media,” the court called on them “to report everything which is made public in this courtroom during the hearing of evidence”.

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