Former chairman points finger at Pullicino Orlando

A former planning board chairman has testified that he voted in favour of the controversial Mistra development on the insistence of the Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando who was supposedly representing tourism interests.

"I was disappointed in him (Dr Pullicino Orlando). He did not show the real reason why he was at the meetings... as he was there under the guise of representing tourism interests... he (Dr Pullicino Orlando) kept insisting that the project be approved because of tourism," said Philip Azzopardi.

The former chairman of the Development Control Commission broke down in tears on the witness stand. "I was never called corrupt before," he said as he paused for a few minutes, choking up.

Mr Azzopardi and a former member of the DCC board, Anthony Mifsud, stand charged with trading in influence in the case.

The controversy centres on a preliminary permit for an open-air disco which the board had issued for a protected piece of land that belongs to the Nationalist backbencher.

Mr Azzopardi said yesterday that he did not know that the land belonged to Dr Pullicino Orlando when he attended a meeting with him and an authority liaison officer during which the MP pushed the case for development.

The point was echoed by his colleague, Mr Mifsud, who also insisted he never knew that Dr Pullicino Orlando was involved in the project.

In the hearing yesterday, Police Inspector Angelo Gafa' challenged Mr Azzopardi: "So the only way to shut the MP up", he told him, was for Mr Azzopardi to attach the disco application to another application made by the Malta Tourism Authority to embellish the bay, which then facilitated the go-ahead for this permit.

Mr Azzopardi said that since the MP had environmental issues at heart and was representing tourism, he took this into consideration. He said he would not have voted in favour had the project not been attached to the MTA embellishment.

"If only I knew what I was going to get myself into I would have never had voted that way".

It was at this point that he broke down as he described the way the police had interrogated him by calling him corrupt and telling him that he had robbed Malta.

He added that they then put him in a cell because he was not cooperating with them, adding: "But how could you cooperate with them when they were throwing accusations around like that".

Magistrate Edwina Grima then asked him about Dr Pullicino Orlando's demeanour during the fateful meeting.

He said that it was a very normal, civilised discussion and that the MP was in no way nervous or agitated but highlighted the project's importance to the tourism sector.

Mr Azzopardi said the site was nothing out of this world and was only 2,000 square metres which in his opinion was small. "About the size of the square in front of the court house," he said.

The case continues.

Police Inspector Ian Abdilla also prosecuted.

Lawyers Joseph Giglio, Stephen Tonna Lowell and Peter Fenech appeared for the men.