On trial for allegedly helping migrants escape

A hotel owner and a company director appear before a jury today at the start of a trial where they are accused of having assisted illegal immigrants to escape from police custody and having conspired to help people leave the island clandestinely.

They have also been charged with holding people against their will at the(then) Marsalforn Hotel and harbouring wanted people at the hotel and other places in Malta and Gozo.

Philip Azzopardi,of Zebbug and residing in Birkirkara, and Joseph Vella, of Victoria, residing in Marsalforn, were charged under arrest by Police Superintendent Pierre Calleja and Inspectors Jeffrey Cilia and Neville Xuereb in 2003.

Their arraignment came days after another men, Francis Xerri, 48 of Victoria pleaded not guilty to conspiring to help people enter or leave the island clandestinely.

He was also charged with holding people against their will at the Marsalforn Hotel and harbouring wanted people at the hotel and other places in Malta and Gozo.

During the compilation of evidence against Azzopardi and Vella, it was reported that illegal immigrants who escaped from police headquarters in July 2003 had told police they had paid fees ranging from $150 to $1,050 to get away from Malta.

Police Inspector Jeffrey Cilia said that when he was questioning eight of the 54 immigrants who had escaped from the headquarters they told him they had paid different sums.

"Some said they paid $150, some $900, some $1,050 and others Lm300. One Turkish man said he had paid Philip Azzopardi $800 by transferring money from a bank account in Germany into Azzopardi's bank account."

Inspector Cilia said that the police caught 14 illegal immigrants, six of whom had escaped from headquarters.

During questioning, the immigrants told police they had been hiding at the Xemxija Bay Hotel. Police searched the hotel where they found another two of the escaped immigrants.

The eight immigrants told police about the escape. They said that once they left headquarters they met a man called David near the Phoenicia Hotel in Floriana.

David phoned Azzopardi from a nearby phone booth and soon after Azzopardi arrived in a car and drove the immigrants away in several trips.

Four men said Azzopardi took them to the Xemxija Bay Hotel, three men said he took them to a garage and another man said he took him to a house.

The four men who were taken to the hotel said that some time later Azzopardi picked them up and took them to a guest house in Gozo.

Then, on August 8, they were picked up by a van belonging to Francis Xerri, Vella's friend, and driven to a boat where a man and a woman were waiting.

They went to Malta where a van was waiting for them. As they were driving they stopped a couple of times to pick up more, immigrants, then Azzopardi collected money from those who had not yet paid.

The couple and Azzopardi eventually left and police caught them.

On August 10 police searched the Marsalforn Hotel and arrested Vella who denied involvement. Azzopardi turned himself in after hearing that police had been looking for him.

An escaped Sudanese immigrant told the court how he was taken to a Gozo hotel after fleeing the Floriana detention centre and stayed in his room for 11 days, leaving it only at night to eat.

Shishani Sefar told the court that after he escaped from the police headquarters a person, Philip Azzopardi, took him and other escapees to the Xemxija Bay Hotel where he stayed for two days.

"We were then taken to the Marsalforn Hotel were we stayed for 11 days. We stayed in rooms on the fourth floor all day, waiting to be taken to Italy, except when Joey (Vella) would whistle for us to go down to the restaurant at about midnight," he said.

Sefar said he had escaped from Libya, where he had lived for seven years. The plan was to travel to Italy by sea but he ended up in Malta because police caught sight of his boat.

He was taken to headquarters where he remained at the detention centre until the escape.

"I remember it was a Friday when I found the door open and escaped with other men of different nationalities... I had not been told that the door was going to be left open that day."

He went on to explain that he met a man called David near the Phoenicia Hotel in Floriana and soon after Azzopardi arrived in a car and drove him to the Xemxija Bay Hotel where he stayed until Sunday evening.

Sefar and other immigrants were then taken to the Marsalforn Hotel in Gozo. Vella, the hotel's owner, told them not to leave the hotel if they did not want to get caught by police.

Finally after 11 days at the hotel, the day then they were to be taken to Italy arrived.

They were taken to Malta on a boat with the assistance of a Maltese couple. There a van was waiting for them and Azzopardi collected money from those who had not yet paid.

But soon after their arrival, the couple and Azzopardi left and police caught them.