The Customs Department’s “intransigent and inefficient” attitude will mean that a case that could have been decided yesterday could drag on for years, Magistrate Francesco Depasquale noted yesterday.
The magistrate said he had everything ready to decide on the case of Jamal Saleh Sabai, 43, who last week admitted to failing to declare the importation of tobacco on a Libyan ship arriving from Tripoli on January 8.
The captain of MV Shada had failed to declare he was importing some 10,000 cigarettes and about 170 kilos of shisha tobacco.
The consignment is estimated to be worth almost €16,000, including just over €5,200 in duties and almost €3,500 in Value Added Tax. During the arraignment, last week, Mr Sabai explained that this was a genuine mistake.
Magistrate Depasquale yesterday noted that, in that previous court sitting, the prosecution, together with Customs’ representatives, agreed that an independent expert would provide an estimate of the MV Shada that was seized so that the court could give a final judgment yesterday.
But Customs had filed a note in court raising objections to this and stating that, according to procedures, since the vessel was under 250 tons, the estimate had to be carried out by Customs itself.
The magistrate ruled that, as a result of these inefficiencies, the case could now take up to three years.
Customs’ representative Joseph Borg told the court there was a procedure that had to be followed once the ship was seized. The department, he said, did not mean to cause delays.
Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi, representing the captain, noted that Customs had gone ahead and evaluated the vessel at €300,000 and insisted on following its “draconian” procedures, which did not allow the owner of the ship (who was not the accused) to contest this evaluation in breach of legal rights.
In light of this situation, the defence was left with no choice but to withdraw the guilty plea and contest the issue in the civil and constitutional courts.
Dr Azzopardi said the “moral shortcoming” of the department was that it did not do anything to update the draconian procedures to amend them to be in line with today’s realities and safeguard human rights. He added that the delays would also negatively impact the 17 crew members of the ship.
The magistrate stressed that the delay was not brought about by the court that had no choice but to refer the case to the court registrar so it could be referred to the competent court.