Meeting tomorrow over lease in Simshar case

The in-laws of Simshar widow Stephania Carabott are expected to meet officials from the Joint Office tomorrow to clarify who owns the lease of Mrs Carabott's Marsaxlokk residence.

A spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretariat for Land said the widow's in-laws have been asked to present documents so that the authorities can establish who owns the lease title.

Last week Mrs Carabott - whose husband, Noel, died in July's Simshar fishing boat tragedy - was ordered by a court to vacate her home of 10 years within four months.

The house, which is owned by the Joint Office, was leased by Mrs Carabott's father-in-law, Joseph, and his sister Dolores. The couple had lived there for 10 years, converting it from an animal shed into a home by pumping €46,587 into it.

But doubts were later raised on whether the 29-year-old widow's in-laws have legal title to the property. Research by the government's Property Division had revealed that the in-laws had no right to the property and the Joint Office had stopped accepting the money due for the agricultural lease from the family back in August 2007.

However, Noel's sister, Suzanne Buttigieg, contested this, saying the division was referring to another property and not the one Mrs Carabott was living in.