A court today ruled that there’s enough evidence to place four Freeport workers, accused of stealing a shipping container loaded with contraband cigarettes under a bill of indictment.

The ruling was given by Magistrate Anthony Vella during the compilation of evidence against Roderick Borg, 32 from Qormi, 60-year old Sebastian Zammit from Safi, Malcolm Zammit, 35 from Qormi and 51-year old Christopher Calleja from Valletta. 

The case happened in August.

The four are pleading not guilty to charges relating to the theft of a shipping container holding 10.5 million cigarettes worth a total of €304,500 and of attempting to deprive the government of nearly €2 million in VAT, import duty and other taxes. Calleja alone, who works as a security guard at the Freeport, is also charged with committing a crime which he was duty-bound to prevent.

Freeport’s Head of HR and legal affairs Dr Duncan Borg Myatt testified that he had been shown CCTV footage of the container being driven in the wrong lane amid other violations of standard operating procedures.

“It was a trans-shipment so it should never have left the Freeport. I delved into the matter and identified that one stevedore who was not authorised to do so loaded the container in question. On seeing this, I called up Inspector Stivala.”

It is understood that there were no instructions to move the container on the Freeport’s computer system. “It should never have left and never been loaded onto the gantry. The container was then loaded onto another truck and left the facility,” he said.

The operator was subsequently identified as Roderick Borg from the punch card number used to log in and out of the equipment system.

Police Inspector Carlos Cordina who, together with Inspector Rennie Stivala, who investigated the case said they found several security shortcomings. The prosecution however chose not to elaborate further on this point in open court.
Lawyer Roberto Montalto, in cross examination, asked Mr Cordina what resulted from his investigations in terms of paperwork relating to the container.

“The only person who could have written the entry in the paperwork was Zammit. CCTV showed him meeting Christopher Calleja.

“The two customs officials were interrogated and a statement was taken. They had been shown footage and pictures of the incident and I remember that there were some lists which had been shown to the two parties. There were at least seven pages of lists.”

Defence lawyer Robert Montalto once again questioned why the prosecution was holding on to the CCTV video, instead of passing it on to the court and defence.
This objection had also been raised by lawyer Joe Giglio in a previous sitting when, during the testimony of a Freeport security official, Inspector Stivala again made reference to the video which the police had shown to the witness.

Dr Giglio said the prosecution was effectively summoning persons who had not seen anything and asking them to interpret video footage.

Dr Montalto contested the assertion that the prosecution had brought sufficient proof for an indictment. “We have a situation where we have no prima facie case against my client at all. This is not a spurious allegation. I have looked at the case file and have seen the charges against Sebastian Zammit. Today, at the close of the compilation of evidence, we are still unsure if there was one cigarette, a hundred, none or just filters. This is the situation at present,” Dr Montalto said.

“Sebastian Zammit happened to be there by coincidence, less than half an hour before he had not been aware that he was going to be working. So far the prosecution’s evidence indicates that a container was moved irregularly. What is the duty evaded on? Who was robbed and of what? If one examines the reasoning behind the laws cited in the charges, the first job of the prosecution was to prove fiscal evasion, how much and of what. How did you decide they were cigarettes? Can I let the court decide on the prima facie when there is not even sure if they were cigarettes or tins of tomato paste?”

His client – Zammit - requested he is released of all charges immediately.

Inspector Stivala argued that the prosecution was in possession of “other documents which it would produce in the next sittings to come”.

There were some 100 cameras which needed to be scrutinised by experts, said the inspector, adding that “the prosecution is confident in stating that the container was stolen, whatever the container contained”.

Irked by this, Dr Montalto said that what the defence and the court itself had been asking to see the CCTV footage, this did not happen.

The trial is set to continue next month.

Lawyers Joe Giglio, Roberto Montalto, Edward Gatt and Veronique Dalli appeared for the accused.