Simshar widow may get temporary accommodation

The slight hope that Simshar widow Stephania Carabott could have kept her Marsaxlokk home has been dashed after the Joint Office discovered it made a mistake and the in-laws do have legal title to the property she shared with her husband for 10 years.

The Commissioner of Land met the in-laws on Wednesday night to clarify matters and it was established there had been a mix-up between their leased property and that owned by their deceased relative Benedict Carabott.

The Department of Information said last week that the in-laws had no right to the property. However, it was contested by Mrs Carabott's sister-in-law, Suzanne Buttigieg, who insisted there had been a mistake.

The authorities believed there could be two tenements under one heading and on the map it looked like there were two properties, which made establishing proof of title a laborious task. The matter has now been resolved.

The story began when the in-laws took Mrs Carabott - who lost her husband Noel, 33, in the Simshar fishing boat tragedy last July - to court and earlier this month she was ordered to vacate the building within four months, leaving her with no roof over her head.

Moved by this tragic story of a grieving widow who risked being thrown on the streets, sources said the Parliamentary Secretariat for Land and the Government's Property Division were working to help Mrs Carabott and provide some form of solace.

The sources explained that the property owned by Noel Carabott's uncle, Benedict, which was initially confused with that of the in-laws, covered 15,000 square metres of land in Hal-Ginwi and was owned by the Joint Office. Next week, the Joint Office plans to repossess this land, and the farmhouse where the uncle lived, and an eviction order would be issued to ensure no squatters reside there.

"If the court decree ordering Mrs Carabott to move out of her present house is appealed this means she will have some more time before being thrown out. It is not being excluded that, purely on a humanitarian basis, until Mrs Carabott finds alternative accommodation, she will be able to temporarily reside in Benedict Carabott's farmhouse," the sources said.

Mrs Carabott's lawyer, Kris Busietta confirmed that he planned to file an appeal from the eviction order next week on a point of law.

The sources said: "The Attorney General has been asked for formal advice on how to proceed. Everybody is touched by Mrs Carabott's tragedy and the aim is to try and ease the suffering as much as possible".

In the meantime, she is living hour by hour in what she describes as a "dark abyss", mourning the loss of her young husband and the possibility of being thrown out of the home she has set up as a shrine to him.

She clings to the words that Simon Bugeja, the only survivor of the Simshar tragedy, told her were her husband's last words at sea: "He kept calling out my name and urged Simon to tell me he loves me".

Mrs Carabott can be contacted on 7901 0175.