Crime money 'unpaid' as victim did not die

Meinrad Calleja refused to pay Joseph Fenech after Richard Cachia Caruana was stabbed because the latter did not die, the Criminal Court heard yesterday.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police, then CID Superintendent, Joe Cachia was testifying in the trial by jury of Calleja who is pleading not guilty to complicity in Cachia Caruana's attempted murder on December 18, 1994.

The Deputy Police Commissioner said Fenech had told him that Charles Attard, Iz-Zambi, whom Fenech said he had commissioned to carry out the killing on behalf of the accused, had informed him that the job was done but when Fenech went to speak to Calleja, the latter refused to pay because Cachia Caruana had not died.

The witness said Fenech had told him that at one point Calleja had told him the execution had to be done by Christmas as otherwise "someone else would come to do it".

The officer explained the course of investigations and how Fenech had formed part of several line-ups in identification parades but was always excluded by both Nicholas Jensen, who saw two assailants flee when the victim was stabbed, as well as by Cachia Caruana.

He explained that when the police received information from Fenech about the involvement of Ian Farrugia and Attard, both were arrested alongside Fenech and they had all given their fingerprints.

Farrugia kept denying his involvement even though his palm print matched the one lifted by the police from Cachia Caruana's car.

Attard had requested to speak to the prime minister. He then verbally admitted and later released a statement that he had also signed.

When confronted and faced with Attard's admission, Farrugia too decided to speak but he did not want to testify before the inquiring magistrate.

Attard explained how Fenech had gone to his farm and asked him whether he wanted to earn some money and when he accepted he was told that a Swieqi lawyer wanted to get rid of an Italian living in Mdina.

They subsequently went to Mdina, waited for the victim and as the latter was by the luggage booth, Farrugia held him as Attard stabbed him.

Attard told the police the knife broke and a man appeared and started shouting. They then ran away.

Farrugia had also explained the incident in a similar manner. Both said they were alone and that they left Mdina on foot. They spent a night in a room in the fields.

The police again spoke to Calleja, who kept denying, even when they confronted him with Fenech.

Former Police Commissioner George Grech spent the best part of the morning session on the witness stand under cross-examination.

Asked whether he had investigated whom Cachia Caruana used to frequent besides the Strickland family in Zejtun, Grech said he knew the victim visited his brothers, one of whom also had his door burnt.

Grech said he was not aware that former brigadier George Micallef or journalists who wrote about Maurice Calleja's resignation suffered any damage to their property.

Asked about the two men whom he had mentioned in his testimony on Thursday, Grech said they were two individuals whose identity he had promised to protect and would continue doing so.

Grech said he had spoken to Etienne Gatt who told him he and Calleja had discussed their fathers' resignations (Maurice Calleja was army commander and Lawrence Gatt was a government minister) and had agreed that Cachia Caruana was the driving force behind such resignations.

Asked about allegations that some of those who had tendered for the Freeport contract were receiving "Mafia style threats", Grech said the investigations about the case were carried out by the Criminal Investigation Department and he could not remember details about that investigation, except that there seemed to be no links with the attempted murder of Cachia Caruana.

Grech said he was not aware of the meetings the prime minister had with Fenech and it was the prime minister who had insisted that the presidential pardon was to be given to Fenech. He too became convinced about the pardon after discussing the matter with the Attorney General as Fenech was the only witness who could point an accusing finger at Calleja.

Asked whether the accused had told him he was willing to undergo a lie detector test, Grech said he could not recall this but said in Malta lie detector tests did not exist and there were people who had beaten such tests.

Grech said he recalled that Farrugia, Attard and Fenech had been together in a car and were stopped in a road block by Inspector Maria Stella Cutajar. He said Fenech had taken Farrugia and Attard to Mdina to show them where Cachia Caruana lived.

Farrugia and Attard had told the police they were told they had to kill an Italian and Attard had subsequently told the police that had he known it was the prime minister's "secretary" he would not have done it.

Grech said investigations made it clear that Cachia Caruana's stabbing and the arson at three houses took place in the month of December, a year after the resignation of Maurice Calleja.

This, and the information received by the two men who had been taken to Mdina by Calleja led to police to look in the direction of Calleja.

The trial continues.

Deputy Attorney General Dr Silvio Camilleri and Senior Counsel to the Republic Dr Donatella Frendo Dimech are prosecuting.

Dr Manwel Mallia and Dr Ramona Frendo are appearing for Calleja.

Dr Tonio Azzopardi is appearing for Cachia Caruana.