The website www.marte

italiano.com.mt is carrying a strong letter of protest to the Prime Minister, addressed as the Minister of Finance.

The letter is by Michele Martone, the Italian lawyer who is still trying to salvage his investments in Malta and Europe Ltd, a company that owned the Excelsior Hotel in the 1970s and was then caught up in the Bical case.

In his letter, Dr Martone refers to a meeting he had with Dr Gonzi on 5 July last year, after having asked for a meeting on 4 October 2004. The meeting was requested, Dr Martone says, because he was convinced that the Prime Minister was ill informed about the whole situation. However, when Dr Gonzi pointed out it was a very complex matter and that Dr Martone’s recent court cases continued to make it even more complicated, Dr Martone was about to reply to set the Prime Minister right but the Italian ambassador, Dr Trabalza, who was present, “with excessive zeal”, intervened to tell Dr Martone to tell Dr Gonzi the rest in a letter.

Dr Martone had no other alternative but to go home and write a letter, which he duly sent to Dr Gonzi, a copy of which he sent to the ambassador; no acknowledgement was ever received from either.

In his letter, Dr Martone complained that throughout the process justice was ridiculed and made some very serious accusations against the Bical controller, Emmanuel Bonello, and his successor. The controller continued to take his substantial annual package while the Bical assets continued to be “dilapidated” and the Pace family continued to portray themselves as the victims.

Over the Christmas holidays, Dr Martone writes, a meeting was held between his former legal counsel, Dr Giovanni Bonello, who was here on holiday, his legal counsel today, Dr Mario de Marco, and Professor Ian Refalo.

In the course of the meeting, reference was made to an agreement dated 4 August 1989 in which the controller, in return for Dr Martone lifting his ban on the sale of the Excelsior Hotel, committed himself to allow Dr Martone to take his investments home with him to Italy. This commitment was guaranteed by the finance minister of the time.

But at this recent meeting, Prof. Refalo said that this had nothing to do with him and invited Dr Martone to ask the government.

And this is what he was doing with his open letter, Dr Martone concluded, warning there could be trouble for everyone.