A 75-year-old man charged with blackmailing the head of the Government’s internal audit bureau, Rita Schembri, was yesterday cleared of the charge but found guilty of defamation.
Joseph Borg, from Swieqi, was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for three years, for defaming Ms Schembri through an e-mail in which he accused her of breaching a lease agreement.
The reasoning behind the decision was not clear as Magistrate Anthony Vella did not read the judgment out in court. A copy of the decision was not available.
Ms Schembri vacated her post temporarily pending an investigation that is being held at her request following allegations that she used her government office to conduct private business. She was also a member on the supervisory committee of the European anti-fraud office OLAF until she resigned earlier this week.
She testified she filed a police report about the e-mail on November 21. It said: “Rita I’m giving you 24 hours to redeem yourself of all previous mischievous conduct before I pass all the details to OLAF.”
She said she had an issue with Mr Borg in the Civil Courts. He had filed two cases, which were decided in 2006 and 2009, regarding a restaurant she and her husband rented from him in 1995.
Ms Schembri said that, in 1998, her husband decided to slow down and they found two Nigerian partners to help out.
In 2005, Mr Borg opened another case against them and Omar Granata, who had sublet the restaurant from them.
The courts never ordered her to pay anyone, she said.
In his testimony Mr Borg had said the Schembris had taken €54,000 in key-money from the Nigerians behind his back.
He subsequently opened a court case against them and they were ordered to vacate the property. The court declared them to have acted fraudulently, he said.
When he found out Ms Schembri worked for OLAF, he said, he wanted it to be known she should not be investigating fraud claims when she was a “fraudster”.
Mr Granata testified that he ran Little Italy in Buġibba, which was the restaurant he had sublet from the Schembris.
He said that when he first met the Schembris he did not know they had a pending court issue with Mr Borg. However, when he met Mr Borg he was told the restaurant should not have been sublet to him because this was in breach of the contract Mr Borg had with the Schembris.
He said that, in spite of the €28,000 he had paid the Schembris in key money, he had to vacate the place following a court appeal judgment.
Ms Schembri originally made headlines after former European Commissioner John Dalli questioned her role as a member of the supervisory committee of OLAF, which in October revealed details of an investigation that led to his resignation.