Controversial students' paper article was posted online 'some years ago'

The author of a controversial University newspaper article was yesterday charged in court with distributing obscene material.

Alex Vella Gera, 36, came to Malta from Luxembourg, where he lives and works as a translator, especially for the court case, which lasted the best part of 25 minutes. No witnesses were heard except the prosecuting officer.

The article, entitled Li Tkisser Sewwi, had appeared in the October edition of Realtà, which is edited by student, Mark Camilleri, 22, who is also undergoing criminal proceedings for printing the piece.

Mr Vella Gera pleaded not guilty to breaching article 208 of the Criminal Code, which deals with the distribution of pornographic or obscene material, among others. If convicted he could be jailed for up to six months or fined up to €465.87.

He also denied breaching articles 3 and 7 of the Press Act, which, in this case, deal with printed matter directly or indirectly "injuring public morals or decency".

Police Inspector Jesmond Micallef told the court he started investigating the case after the University's lawyer, Christopher Soler, filed a formal complaint about obscene material being distributed on campus. He questioned Mr Vella Gera on March 16 and he admitted to writing the article.

Defence lawyer Philip Manduca asked whether the article had been published before and the prosecuting officer said the accused had told him it had been posted on the internet some years ago but had since been removed.

The lawyer asked why his client had been charged under article 208 where the word pornographic was also included and the officer replied it was because the accused also admitted to knowing that the article would be published in the paper.

The inspector added that, during investigations, Mr Vella Gera had fully cooperated, "from beginning to end".

At the end of the sitting, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli asked the prosecuting officer to produce all the relevant witnesses as soon as possible and put off the case to July.

Mr Vella Gera said it would be expensive to buy a flight ticket this being the peak season, however, he would make the sacrifice and be in Malta for the next sitting. The court then changed the date to October.