Lawyers battled in court today over the insistence of former GRTU chief Vince Farrugia to testify during proceedings filed by developer Sandro Chetcuti in which he is calling on the police to prosecute Mr Farrugia for perjury.
While Mr Farrugia's lawyers are insisting that he had a right to testify to give his version, Mr Chetcuti's lawyer and the Police Commissioner argued that Mr Farrugia was extraneous to the proceedings.
The exchange, which was at times heated, took place before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja who is hearing an application, known in legal jargon as a challenge against the Police Commissioner, requesting the court to order the police to charge Mr Farrugia in court.
Mr Chetcuti filed the application requesting that Mr Farrugia be charged with suborning witnesses to give false evidence, perjury and fabrication of false evidence.
In September 2013, Mr Chetcuti was convicted of having slightly injured Mr Farrugia, the former GRTU Director-General when he assaulted him at the association's offices in 2010.
He was condemned to a one month jail term suspended for one year.
The court, presided by Magistrate Edwina Grima, who has since been promoted to judge, also ordered the Commissioner of Police to investigate Mr Farrugia and other witnesses who may have testified falsely before the court.
The case took place in March 2010 and Mr Chetcuti had originally been accused of Mr Farrugia's attempted murder but the prosecution had dropped this charge, leaving assault with intent to cause serious injury as the most serious charge.
The court noted that even before the court procedures started, Mr Farrugia had tried to use his influential position to ensure that Mr Chetcuti faced a trial by media.
Evidence of SMS messages and other contacts showed that he had contacted journalists and even vetted articles and comments in the press.
The court had said it could understand the emotions of somebody who was the victim of aggression, but this did not give him any right to carry out manoeuvres to twist the hand of justice.
The evidence showed that Mr Farrugia had been punched so hard that Mr Chetcuti broke his hand.
The challenge proceedings were meant to come to an end today when Magistrate Bugeja was expected to hand down his decision. However, Mr Farrugia filed an urgent application calling for the suspension of proceedings until he testified.
Making their submissions on the latest request, the lawyers disagreed on whether Mr Farrugia was legally entitled to testify.
Lawyer Edward Gatt, appearing for Mr Chetcuti, insisted that Mr Farrugia "had nothing to do with the case" as the challenge proceedings had been filed against the Police Commissioner. He said allowing him to testify would open a Pandora's Box and would create "a dangerous precedent". He said the law did not allow a third party to testify during such proceedings.
Police Inspectors James Grech and Sandro Camilleri, appearing for the Police Commissioner, agreed with this stance.
But Steve Tonna Lowell, appearing for Mr Farrugia, accused the other parties of objecting to try to stop the court from hearing all the possible evidence needed for it to reach its decision. "The court must hear the whole truth and not part of it, or the version of just one side of a story. The real victims in this case was and will remain Mr Farrugia," he said.
Dr Gatt retorted that if Mr Farrugia was the victim in the criminal case against his client, the roles were now inverted, with the police being asked to prosecute Mr Farrugia after a court noted how he had allegedly lied under oath and manipulated the evidence to suit himself.
Magistrate Bugeja said he will decree on the matter in camera.
Lawyers William Cuschieri and Jean Karl Farrugia also appeared for Mr Chetcuti and Mr Farrugia respectively.