Two men go on trial for people smuggling

Defence lawyers in a trial by jury yesterday tried to punch holes in the police investigation after a number of illegal immigrants claimed they had paid two Maltese men to leave Malta on a boat from Xemxija.

Lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi cross-examined the principal investigator, Police Inspector Jeffery Cilia, who by and large told them that the issues they were raising were irrelevant to the investigation since all the immigrants gave a similar version which could stand in a court of law.

The officer took the witness stand against hotel owner Phillip Azzopardi, 67, of Birkirkara and company director Joseph Vella, 54, of Victoria, who are pleading not guilty to trafficking illegal immigrants and harbouring criminals, assisting in their escape and providing the means of their escape from Malta.

Inspector Cilia said that on August 8, 2003, the police caught 14 illegal immigrants, six of whom had escaped from police headquarters together with another 49 three weeks earlier. They were arrested on the Baħar iċ-Ċaħaq sea shore. During questioning, the immigrants told the police they had been hiding at the Xemxija Bay Hotel. Police searched the hotel where they found another two of the escaped immigrants.

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

David called Mr Azzopardi from a nearby phone booth and soon after Mr Azzopardi arrived in a car and drove the immigrants away in several trips. Four men said Mr 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 Mr 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 another man, Francis Xerri, Mr Vella’s friend, and driven to a boat where a man and a woman were waiting.

They went to Malta where another van was waiting for them. Along the way they stopped a couple of times to pick up more immigrants, then Mr Azzopardi collected money from those who had not yet paid up. Some said they paid $150, some $900, some $1,050 and others Lm300 by transferring money from a bank account in Germany into Mr Azzopardi’s bank account. One Turkish man said he had paid Mr Azzopardi $800, the officer said.

The couple and Mr Azzopardi eventually left and the immigrants were caught by the police at Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq.

On August 10, the police searched the Marsalforn Guest House and arrested Mr Vella who denied involvement. Mr Azzopardi turned himself in after hearing that the police were looking for him.

Mr Xerri was also arrested but was found not guilty in a separate case.

The officer said the immigrants had been given instructions by Mr Vella and Mr Azzopardi not to open the window in their room. He explained how a Turk had shown the police a note with the car registration number of the vehicle which had transported him and his friends from a hotel in Gozo to the seashore and that car belonged to Mr Xerri.

During cross examination, Dr Mallia and Dr Azzopardi listed a number of witnesses who were not called to testify and asked the reason why. In one particular example, Dr Mallia highlighted the fact that the exact location where the immigrants were meant to leave for Italy was not known and officers who had allegedly been at the scene of the crime were not called to testify.

Inspector Cilia told the jurors that this was not essential to the investigation and that since all the immigrants were corroborating each others’ version of events, that was enough.

In further questioning, the officer said that an identification parade of the accused was not done but he had shown their pictures to the immigrants and they recognised them.

In other questions put by Dr Azzopardi, the officer admitted to not checking bank records of the accused to see if the payments were actually made and also admitted to not doing a financial background check on Mr Azzopardi which would have revealed that he was a wealthy businessman.

The case continues.

Lara Lanfranco appeared for the Attorney General’s Office.