Acquitted man re-arrested in rare legal move

The case against a former Public Transport Association secretary was yesterday reopened after the Attorney General issued a warrant for his arrest under his signature.

Alphonse Abela was taken before the Magistrates' Court under a rarely applied section of the Criminal Code which gives the Attorney General the power to re-arrest a person discharged by the Magistrates' Court if a judge not ordinarily sitting in the criminal courts agrees with him there are sufficient grounds for indictment.

Abela had been discharged by Magistrate Antonio Mizzi last month after he was arraigned by Inspectors Sandra Mamo and Bernard Zarb and charged with defrauding the Education Department and other governmental authorities out of some Lm89,000.

Abela, 51, now the PTA treasurer, was also charged with forging PTA invoices for the state school transport service and other documents and making use of them between January 2000 and December 2001.

Magistrate Mizzi ruled that the evidence produced by the prosecution did not link him to the fraud.

But Abela appeared again before Magistrate Mizzi yesterday morning and the Attorney General requested that the case continue under section 433 of the Criminal Code.

Magistrate Mizzi however abstained from taking further cognisance of the case since he had expressed an opinion when he gave the original ruling discharging Abela.

The Magistrates' Court registry will now assign the case to another magistrate.