Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano yesterday vehemently denied being influenced in his sentencing of a drug trafficker to prison for 18 years, as he testified during the case in which his former colleague Ray Pace stands charged with accepting bribes.
I am scrupulous
The judge sat at the Bench, to presiding Magistrate Neville Camilleri’s right, and defended his honour after the lawyers appearing for the trafficker had raised doubts about his integrity in the last sitting.
The case came to light last December with the shock arrest of Dr Pace, a former judge charged with accepting bribes, conspiring to commit a crime and trading in influence.
The prosecution allege he tried to influence the outcome of a sentence passed by Mr Justice Quintano in a case involving convicted trafficker Darrin Desira.
Two other men, Raymond Caruana, a 51-year-old truck driver from Żebbuġ, and Sandro Psaila, a 40-year-old restaurateur of Valletta, are charged with bribing the judge in an attempt to ensure that Mr Desira receives a long prison term.
Yesterday’s sitting, ironically held in Dr Pace’s old courtroom, was a tense affair. At one point the magistrate asked Mr Justice Quintano to lower his voice as he passionately explained why he had decided upon a prison sentence of 18 years.
“The judgment is very technical and if anyone had taken the time to read it then I would not be here testifying,” said the judge, adding that he did not turn up in court to hand down judgments on a whim: “I am scrupulous.”
He said he did not have a social life and never discussed cases with anyone. If anyone had approached him to discuss something of the sort he would have kicked that person out of his office.
Mr Justice Quintano recalled that on November 27, the day the judgment in Mr Desira’s case was delivered, Dr Pace had asked to speak to him in his chambers. At the time he was writing and mulling the submissions made by the lawyers in the case.
He said he made it quite clear to Dr Pace, through his body language, that he did not have the time to talk and was pressed for time.
Dr Pace remarked that he ought to take care over the Desira case because it was serious, Mr Justice Quintano said.
The judge said it was unusual for a fellow judge to turn up at his chambers, adding that, if anyone thought that members of the judiciary went to each other’s chambers, they were mistaken.
“My conscience is clear,” he said, arguing that he used a judgment handed down by retired judge Joseph Galea Debono as a basis for the sentencing of Mr Desira.
In that judgment, two men, Joseph Borg and Joseph Sultana, who happened to be the co-accused in the drug trafficking case against Mr Desira, had been jailed for 13 and 14 years respectively.
As the cross examination began, Giannella de Marco, appearing for Mr Desira, asked Dr Quintano if he could repeat the jail terms handed down to Mr Borg and Mr Sultana.
The judge reacted angrily, saying he was not going to answer the question because he had already told the court. It was Dr de Marco’s problem if she had not been paying attention.
Dr de Marco appealed to Magistrate Camilleri, who asked the judge to answer the question, which he did after remarking that once he had been asked to do so by the magistrate, then he would.
Stefano Filletti and Joe Mifsud, appearing for Dr Pace, objected to the line of questioning because, they submitted, this case was against Dr Pace and not Mr Desira’s appeal. Furthermore, no charges had been brought against Dr Quintano.
Magistrate Camilleri asked Mr Justice Quintano to leave the court room so that the lawyers could make submissions on the questioning of the judge.
Dr de Marco told the magistrate that the situation had made her job very difficult: they still had to appear before Mr Justice Quintano and his hostile attitude towards her was evidence of that.
She said this was a serious case. Mr Caruana and Mr Psaila had used the fact that they secured a long prison term for Mr Desira as a bargaining chip.
Quoting from a security service recording of the conversations of the two men, the lawyer said they had used their influence over Dr Pace, who in turn influenced Mr Justice Quintano, to warn others of their power. “This is like the mafia in power,” she added.
As tensions rose when the lawyers of both parties bickered over comments made during the proceedings, Magistrate Camilleri suspended Mr Justice Quintano’s testimony until May 13.
Taking the witness stand, Assistant Police Commissioner Neil Harrison said that, before the investigation into Dr Pace, he had been summoned by the former judge to his chambers.
They were talking about an unrelated subject when Dr Pace asked him if he had seen the judgment in which he and another two judges had ordered the re-trial of another convicted drug trafficker.
The former judge remarked that, if it were not for him, Mr Desira would have received a much lower jail term, Mr Harrison said. At first he thought Dr Pace was trying to impress but once the investigation got under way he realised the importance of the remark.
The case continues.