The chairman and a member on the Mepa board which had approved the controversial open-air discothèque in Mistra told the police in written statements that they were against the project but eventually gave in to pressure by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
This emerged in court yesterday during the compilation of evidence in the case of Philip Azzopardi and Anthony Mifsud, respectively the chairman and member on the Mepa board which approved the project last November.
Police Inspector Angelo Gafà, prosecuting, told the court that both had independently said they had been contacted by Dr Pullicino Orlando, as did Lawrence Vassallo, a customer care official at Mepa, and George Micallef, a former Malta Tourism Authority consultant and former acting CEO who is also expected to be arraigned shortly.
Mr Vassallo described the pressure as so intense that, shortly before the case broke out in public, he deleted 71 messages from Dr Pullicino Orlando in connection with the case.
The court case follows a three-month police investigation that was launched after the Labour Party, shortly before the March general election, alleged that there was corruption in the way the permit was issued.
Under cross-examination, Mr Gafà said no evidence of money changing hands or trading in influence had emerged from the investigation.
When testifying he laid stress on a series of informal meetings which had taken place, one of them at the Environment Ministry, in connection with the case between the board members, Mr Micallef, Mr Vassallo and Dr Pullicino Orlando. The aim of the meetings, according to both the statements of Mr Mifsud and Mr Azzopardi, was to come to a favourable decision on the project.
None of those present said they were aware that Dr Pullicino Orlando was the owner of the land but Mr Azzopardi still said he was "surprised" when he saw Dr Pullicino Orlando there.
In one of the meetings Dr Pullicino Orlando, according to Mr Azzopardi, had suggested that the application be tied to a separate planning application for an embellishment project which the Malta Tourism Authority had in the area.
The board had acted on this recommendation and, separately, Mr Micallef (who at the time was acting CEO at the MTA), according to his own statement, had been asked by Dr Pullicino Orlando to accelerate the MTA's application and switch it from an outline permit application (preliminary permit) to a full permit application "because the Mistra project depended on it".
Mr Micallef admitted in his statement that he had written a favourable report on the project, first as a consultant and then on behalf of the MTA because he had been asked by Dr Pullicino Orlando, who was "his friend".
As soon as the application was switched for a full permit bid, which was not normal practice for the MTA, the process was "suddenly accelerated" and the permit application was even being processed before some of the MTA's other applications that had been pending for longer.
The developer behind the project, Dominic Micallef, had told the police that he was unaware of all this.
Mr Gafà said Mr Micallef had told them that it had been Dr Pullicino Orlando who offered him the land in Mistra for this development. He had tried in the past to develop a seaside open-air club at the Splash and Fun Park but was sabotaged. He spoke to the MP one night at his club in Rabat, where Dr Pullicino Orlando had organised an activity, and the latter immediately offered to help.
Dr Pullicino Orlando called him up shortly afterwards and offered him three alternatives for his planned disco: the land in Mistra, a site at Kalkara, near the film studios and another site at Ta' Qali.
Mr Micallef said he went for the Mistra plot but he did not want this project to go through at all costs. He had told the police that he had other alternatives in Cyprus and even in Dubai.
In fact, he said that at one point he had called Dr Pullicino Orlando and asked him for a definitive answer on whether the project would be approved because he wanted to decide whether to go for it or invest abroad. Dr Pullicino Orlando is said to have told him that the permit was likely to go through and shortly after it did.
When the outline permit went through, Mr Micallef and Dr Pullicino Orlando went on to finalise a lease agreement for €1.9 million over 15 years. To his surprise, Dominic Micallef told the police, Dr Pullicino Orlando told him at that point that he had bought an adjacent tract of land, which he was offering to him to develop as a car park. Mr Micallef accepted and later submitted a planning application, which included this adjacent land in the full development permit that was submitted after that.
However, he insisted with the police that he didn't know that Dr Pullicino Orlando was exercising any pressure on anyone. They had never talked about this.
In his statement, Dr Pullicino Orlando said that he had not pressured anyone to do anything that was irregular. When asked by the police about his role in calling Mr Vassallo about this permit application, he said that he had done this countless times in the past on behalf of constituents and that he saw nothing wrong in it.
When confronted with the fact that he had a direct interest in the case, Dr Pullicino Orlando said that he already had an income from this land and he did not need this lease contract.
Defence lawyers Joe Giglio, Peter Fenech and Stephen Tonna Lowell appeared for the accused.
Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar and Inspector Ian Abdilla co-prosecuted.