Mohammed Anis Bel Hadj, 25, was questioned in prison yesterday by the Giudice per le Indagni Preliminari (GIP - judge for preliminary investigations) Vincenzo Ignaccolo in the presence of defence lawyer Giuseppe Nicastro. A tearful Bel Hadj told the judge that he left Tunisia for Malta only in 2003 and that he had lived on the island, where he worked as a bricklayer, until last June, when he was ferried to the coast of Ragusa.
Bel Hadj said that, like many other Tunisians, he crossed the sea between Malta and Sicily on board a fast boat piloted by two people who were hooded so that they would not be recognisable. He said he was charged Lm300 for the trip.
Bel Hadj claimed that in 2001, the year when the landings on the Ragusa coast took place, he was in Tunisia because in that same year, his wife had given birth to a baby girl. His lawyer told the court he was going to file a request for bail.
A 48-year-old Tunisian man, Habib Tabbakh, was found dead on the shore of Caucana (in the Ragusa area) the day after a landing on 4 July 2001. In a second landing on the shore of Randello (also in the Ragusa area), on 10 July 2001, four Iraqis were found dead on the same beach.
Bel Hadj is one of 13 people residing in Malta who are wanted by the Italian authorities in connection with these two landings on the coast in the Ragusa area.
Another two people wanted in connection with this case have already been detained. They are Egyptian Abdou Kafas Salah El Din, 39, who was stopped at Fiumicino Airport in Rome on 25 January 2003, and Carmelo “Charles” Butler, 45, of St Paul’s Bay, who was caught on 5 May 2004 as he landed at Heathrow Airport upon his arrival on an Air Malta flight.
There are still another nine people, presumably still living in Malta, being sought by the the Ragusa courts in connection with this case, while another wanted person has since died.
The extradition requests had been passed to the Catania courts and then to the Italian Justice Ministry.
Italians sources who are in close contact with the investigators in the case told The Malta Independent that Maltese law enforcement officials are among the people being sought by the Italian authorities in connection with this case.
The Ragusa mobile squad led by Giuseppe Bellassai had been tracking Bel Hadj for some time. Italian sources said it was thanks to information obtained by the Italian authorities in Malta that the man was traced to the Ragusa area.
They added that for the past few weeks, there has been an Italian task force in Malta dealing with illegal immigration.
The Italian authorities are saying that some time before his arrest, Bel Hadj had suddenly left his wife and boy (this contrasts with his claim of having had a baby girl in 2001) in Malta and entered Sicily illegally. He was spotted thanks to the traces left by his mobile phone calls.
Bel Hadj’s role in the organisation, which managed the trafficking of illegal immigrants from Malta to Sicily, particularly between 2000 and 2001, is considered as that of an intermediary.
Italian police investigations established that Bel Hadj used to contact the illegal immigrants after they came to Malta legally by air.
He would then allocate them hotels close to the sea, and show them the boat which would eventually ferry them to Sicily. This voyage lasted an hour.
The total fee for the whole procedure ranged between $600 and $1,200 for each immigrant.
Bel Hadj had spent the last few days before he was caught in a house at Santa Croce Camerina together with two other Tunisians who did not know about his past.
While on the Italian island, Bel Hadj was employed as a seasonal agricultural worker in order to earn a living.
The police are also investigating whether Bel Hadj was still involved in the organisations that continue to ferry illegal immigrants from Malta to Sicily.
The arrest warrant for Bel Hadj was issued in 2002 by GIP Vincenzo Saito, following a request by prosecutor Lelia Di Domenico.
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