Police chief gives details of telephone conversations

The police have tapes of telephone conversations between four men charged with planning to bribe two judges including two phone calls by jailed drug trafficker Mario Camilleri asking his wife to prepare the money and warning his son not to let him down, the police commissioner said yesterday.

John Rizzo said the whole story could be pieced together from the recorded telephone conversations.

"There was a telephone call to the wife asking her to prepare the money and another to the son in which Mario Camilleri can be heard telling him he was looking upon him like a man, warning him not to make him look an idiot and urging him to see the money changing hands with his own eyes," the commissioner said.

"There was also another phone call informing Mario Camilleri that the money had changed hands under his son's watchful eye."

Mr Rizzo testified in the compilation of evidence against Mario Camilleri and his son Pierre, 40 and 20, Anthony Grech Sant, 55, and Joseph Zammit, 57.

They are pleading not guilty to trading in influence, aiding and abetting in the bribery of two judges and conspiring to commit a crime.

Zammit alone is also charged with defrauding Mario Camilleri and/or other people out of some Lm5,000 and a second count of trading in influence.

Zammit and Camilleri are also charged with relapsing.

The commissioner said there was an earlier telephone conversation between Mario Camilleri and Zammit in which Camilleri feigned not to know about any agreements involving money and Zammit was heard exhorting him to ask his son about the agreement.

There were other phone calls which showed that Camilleri had been informed of what was going on all along but Camilleri chose to pretend he knew nothing about the matter.

Mention of the telephone conversations was made when Mr Rizzo was under cross-examination after he was asked whether the police had more evidence against the Camilleris apart from the statements made by their co-accused.

He said the police had pieced the story together from a series of telephone conversations which showed that Mario Camilleri and George Spiteri both knew the outcome of their appeals days before the judgments were handed down.

Mr Rizzo said that, after the police learnt that Mario Camilleri had been making use of a telephone, the prison authorities were asked to carry out a search in his cell and a mobile phone in a plastic bag was retrieved from the toilet's siphon trap.

The commissioner gave a detailed overview of the investigation he led on the basis of information received by the police on July 7.

The allegation at the root of the information was that three judges in the Court of Criminal Appeal had been promised Lm10,000 each to help in Camilleri's appeal but the judges were eventually paid Lm5,000 each.

Mr Rizzo said the police started looking into the claims and arrested the defendants. They also spoke to the three judges in the appeal court.

Zammit was the first to be questioned and he told police how he had been approached by Pierre Camilleri.

He explained that he might have given people the impression he knew Judge Vella because he had been seen talking to him.

Zammit said they had a love for football in common and they knew each other from the time the judge had been president of the Valletta football club.

He said he spoke to Judge Vella a first time and the judge cut him short and told him he did not want to have anything to do with the matter.

He then approached Grech Sant because of his friendship with Judge Arrigo and asked Grech Sant to see if the judge could help.

Zammit said he had also approached Judge Arrigo himself and the judge had told him he would see what he could do. He had eventually also spoken to Judge Vella again and told him that Camilleri was prepared to pay Lm10,000.

Some time later Zammit was informed that the judges were prepared to reduce the sentence by three years.

He then told Judge Vella that the figure now stood at Lm5,000 but the judge told him to stick to his original promise and Zammit tried to placate him and told him he would get Lm10,000.

On July 5, Zammit collected Lm15,000 as payment for the judges and Lm1,000 for himself. Mario Camilleri was led to believe that the Lm15,000 were meant as three payments of Lm5,000 for each of the three judges but in reality Zammit was planning to keep Lm5,000 for himself because Mr Justice Joseph Filletti, the third judge in the appeal court, had not been approached.

Zammit said Pierre Camilleri was aware of this and they planned to share the Lm3,000 intended by Mario Camilleri for Zammit. The commissioner said he was not sure whether the balance of Lm2,000 had been paid to Zammit.

Zammit explained how he and Judge Vella arranged to meet outside Zammit's house and Pierre Camilleri watched from a window as the money changed hands.

Zammit then spoke to Grech Sant so that he would pass on the payment to Judge Arrigo but Grech Sant refused because the payment was not the one they had agreed on.

Zammit said he had met Judge Arrigo himself and gave him the payment. It was also agreed that Pierre Camilleri would give Grech Sant Lm500 for his part.

The commissioner said Zammit told him that Camilleri's lawyers were not aware of what was going on and that it was all done behind their back.

Grech Sant was then questioned but he categorically denied any involvement. He was then faced with the information the police had obtained including Zammit's statement.

The commissioner said Grech Sant had then slowly opted to cooperate and admitted he had been approached by Zammit, in the presence of Pierre Camilleri, and asked to approach Judge Arrigo for help.

Grech Sant told police that he had not thought Judge Arrigo would be very pleased to be approached but spoke to him anyway and told him that Mario Camilleri was prepared to pay Lm10,000. The judge told him he would see what he could do.

When he eventually found out that Camilleri was going to pay Lm5,000 and not Lm10,000 he refused to have anything more to do with the matter and would not take the payment to Judge Arrigo himself.

The commissioner said Grech Sant called Judge Arrigo, however, to warn him that he was going to receive a payment of Lm5,000 and not Lm10,000.

Mr Rizzo said the police had however learnt from an independent witness that Judge Arrigo had refused the payment from Zammit and had accepted it from Grech Sant.

The commissioner said he asked Zammit to return the money but Zammit told him he had used it to settle gambling debts and was not in a position to return it.

Mr Rizzo also mentioned that a priest had gone to see him and had taken with him Lm5,000 which he had received during confession.

He said he had asked whether there was a victim so that he could return the money to the victim but he had as yet received no reply. The commissioner said he had formally exhibited the money in the case against the judges.

Mario and Pierre Camilleri were both questioned and both chose not to reply to the questions put to them by the police.

Under cross-examination, Mr Rizzo was asked if Zammit had spoken to anyone else and the commissioner said that as far as he knew, Zammit had spoken only to the police officials and to his lawyer.

The commissioner said Zammit had spoken to his lawyer because he was concerned that people in Valletta were talking after they had learnt that he was collaborating with the police.

Mr Rizzo said he had given Zammit his word that the police had not leaked any information.

Asked if he had promised Zammit that he would not object to him being granted bail if he cooperated, Mr Rizzo said: "Definitely not."

Asked why he had linked the Lm5,000 given to him by the priest to this case, Mr Rizzo said he had not. He was simply stating a fact which he thought might be relevant.

Asked if there were photos of the money changing hands, Mr Rizzo said the police did not have any but he could not answer for the Security Services because the department was autonomous.

Asked if anyone had said that Grech Sant was to receive any money, Mr Rizzo said that Zammit told Camilleri to give Grech Sant Lm500 "for a drink."

Magistrate Cuschieri yesterday also heard deputy commissioner Joseph Cachia, assistant commissioner Michael Cassar and Superintendent Pierre Calleja on the witness stand. They all gave details of their part in the investigation, most of which had been previously explained by the commissioner.

Mr Cassar and Mr Calleja told how they had been asked to go to the commissioner's office where they had listened to tapes of telephone conversations between the defendants.

Mr Cassar said the police had seized five mobile phones in a search at Pierre Camilleri's residence.

The case continues this morning.

Attorney general Anthony Borg Barthet is leading the prosecution.

Dr Joseph Brincat is appearing for Grech Sant, Dr Chris Cardona for Zammit and Dr Franco Debono for the Camilleris.