A Criminal Court yesterday declared a bill of indictment issued against six men charged with conspiracy to deal in cocaine as null and void after noting that the magistrate who presided over the compilation of evidence against them did not sign the case documents as laid down in the Laws of Malta.
Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono noted that the magistrate’s signature was missing on the six documents related to the examination of the accused on their first appearance in court which would also include the guilty plea they filed. As a result, these case documents and all other case documents related to the compilation of evidence were also to be declared null and void.
This was the judge’s ruling for the preliminary pleas raised by the accused when the bill of indictment was issued against them.
The men are Joseph Grech, Jason Briffa, Publius Micallef and Raymond Bonello, Sandro Psaila and Saviour Azzopardi who are AFM soldiers. The bill claimed that, in June 2001 police were informed that Mr Grech was dealing in cocaine and, following extensive investigations, the police established that he was planning to import a large quantity of cocaine into Malta along with Mr Briffa and three AFM soldiers. A sixth man, Mr Micallef, was also involved and had introduced Mr Grech to Mr Briffa.
The bill states that the plan was to import three kilogrammes of cocaine from Sicily on 6 July 2001.
On the day, the bill claimed, Mr Psaila, Mr Bonello and Mr Azzopardi went to Ghajn Tuffieha where they met Mr Briffa who handed over Lm32,000 to Mr Bonello. Mr Grech was in the vicinities, at Hal Ferh Holiday Complex, awaiting instructions.
The police managed to foil their plans as they had been closely monitoring their movements. Consequently, as laid down in the bill, all six men were charged with conspiring to deal in drugs.
In their preliminary pleas Mr Psaila, Mr Bonello and Mr Azzopardi called on the court to declare the bill of indictment and the documents compiled in the Magistrates’ Court to be null. They argued that the magistrate presiding over the compilation of evidence had not signed several case documents including the examination of the accused, the evidence of various witnesses and even court exhibits.
Mr Justice Galea Debono said the documents showing the examination of the accused was stamped by the magistrate and that of the court registrar but only the latter had been signed. As a result, he ruled that this mistake made the case documents null.
The judge therefore abstained from taking cognisance of all the other preliminary pleas raised by the accused and he ordered that the case be sent back to the Magistrates’ Court. Legal sources said the case will be sent back to the presiding magistrate who will probably abstain from signing the documents and as a result, the case will start all over again.
Dr Joseph Giglio, Dr Jose Herrera, Dr Roberto Montalto, Dr Emmanuel Mallia, Dr Giannella Caruana Curran and Dr Anglu Farrugia appeared for the six accused.