Former Sliema mayor a threat to society, inspector tells court

A police inspector yesterday insisted in court that former Sliema mayor Nikki Dimech was “a threat to society”, as was everyone else who abused of the power conferred on them.

“I had said he was a threat to society and time proved me right because he has a number of other cases. Everyone who abuses of his position is a threat to society that has entrusted him with power,” Inspector Angelo Gafà said.

He was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Mr Dimech who stands charged with having solicited a bribe and reviling, threatening or insulting a police officer.

Taking the witness stand under cross-examination, Inspector Gafà was asked by defence lawyer Stephen Tonna Lowell to substantiate the “threat to society” statement he had made when opposing a request for Mr Dimech to be granted bail during his arraignment in August 2010.

Mr Gafà said he stood by what he said, adding that time had proved him right as he later investigated other cases involving Mr Dimech.

Dr Tonna Lowell pressed Mr Gafà for an explanation as to why he had released Mr Dimech from arrest on a Saturday and then decided to arrest him and charge him with urgency before Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna on the following Monday evening.

Mr Gafà said in most of his cases, he took a person to court by summons, as was the case on the corruption charge. But in this case he arrested Mr Dimech on his superiors’ orders because he had committed an offence which merited his arrest, based on the allegations about him and the claims Mr Dimech made when he was interrogated.

The inspector, however, denied arresting Mr Dimech on the basis of two interviews he had given The Times and Malta Today – comments that amounted to hindering police investigations, he said.

He said he had called Magistrate Apap Bologna to explain the situation and tell him that his superiors did not wish to keep Mr Dimech at the police lock-up overnight. It was the magistrate who gave him the time Mr Dimech was to be arraigned.

Mr Gafà said Mr Dimech used to send him very long e-mails and, in one of them, warned him that he would hold him personally responsible for what was happening. Answering other questions, Mr Gafà strongly denied he ever told Mr Dimech that his “political career was finished” or that he was going to make “a show (of him) in front of the press”, as alleged by Mr Dimech in the media.

He also denied harassing Mr Dimech with his investigations, insisting he had never started an investigation on his own account but had always been instructed to do so.

Mr Gafà was also questioned about information Mr Dimech, then vice president of Sliema Wanderers Football Club, had given him about two people involved in football corruption. Mr Gafà said the information was “unsubstantiated”.

When he was asked to reveal the names of the two people Mr Dimech had mentioned, Mr Gafà said he did not know if there was a pending investigation on these claims and neither whether they had been interrogated.

At this point, journalists were ordered to leave the courtroom so that the names would not be published in the media.

When the sitting resumed in open court, Stephen Buhagiar, the council’s former contracts manager, took the witness stand.

He was grilled by defence lawyer Joe Giglio on why it had taken him more than six months to spill the beans.

Mr Buhagiar said Mr Dimech had asked him how much he was ready to offer in commission, such as five or 10 per cent, to secure him a job as contracts manager with the council before he was actually given the position. He only made the allegation once he was sacked before his probation period was up.

He had spoken to Nationalist Party general secretary Paul Borg Olivier, Parliamentary Secretary for Local Councils Chris Said and the then director for local government, Martin Bugelli.

Mr Buhagiar said he had only been asked once for commission and had not given it much weight because it was never mentioned again. At the time of the alleged bribe request, he had already stopped working as Nationalist MP Robert Arrigo’s driver and was unemployed.

He claimed the six-month probation clause had been inserted in his contract at the request of councillors Yves Bobby Calì and Martin Debono, “... because they wanted to eventually give the contract to Philip Chircop who was their friend”. The contract was, indeed, later given to Mr Chircop.

Mr Buhagiar, who is facing separate criminal proceedings for assaulting a public officer, admitted telling councillors Mr Debono and Mr Calì they would “regret it” (their decision to vote in favour of a motion to sack him).

The case continues in December.

Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit presided over the court.