The owners of Seabank Hotel and a construction company are among eight people facing charges of involuntary homicide of a Latvian man more than three years after he was crushed to death during works on the Mellieħa hotel.
The charges of negligence were issued by the police two weeks ago and only came to light after The Sunday Times of Malta started raising questions about the 2012 tragedy that killed Maksims Artamonovs, 27.
Mr Artamonovs, the sole breadwinner of his family in Latvia, was dismantling the scaffolding in the car park beneath the nightclub when the whole structure collapsed, probably killing him instantly.
The young man was employed by B&B Holdings and Investments Ltd, which was contracted to work on the hotel’s €20 million refurbishment.
The incident had occurred on March 6, 2012, but it took almost 24 hours for the young man’s body to be recovered from the rubble, and more than a year for the magisterial inquiry to be concluded.
Although the inquiry, which included a detailed study by structural engineers to establish responsibility, was ready two years ago this was never published and the case had been all but forgotten had his sister, Antonia, not approached this newspaper calling for justice.
His sister, 33, who recalled her brother lamenting the pressure to deliver the project on time – regularly working at 3am in the process – flew to Malta at the end of July to establish why no action had been taken.
The inquiry was ready two years ago and never published
Her brother was the only victim of the unexplained collapse of a nightclub structure that was being built as part of the hotel’s major renovation, on which some 400 people were working.
On July 29, police issued charges against: hotel owner Silvio Debono, Seabank Group CEO Arthur Gauci, B&B Construction owner Angelo Bartolo, B&B Holdings and Investments general manager Etienne Bartolo, structural engineer Pierre Farrugia, architect Robert Sant, Rueben Gatt and Francis Zammit.
All eight are facing charges of causing the death of the Latvian worker through negligence. Angelo Bartolo, Etienne Bartolo and Mr Debono are relapsers.
At the time of the incident, Mr Debono had spoken to the Times of Malta about how deeply shaken he was by the death of Mr Artamonovs; a “wound” he had said, everybody would carry for the rest of their lives.
He had explained that concrete works had been finished three months before the tragedy.
“I was assured that the work was being done as it should, 100 per cent. All health and safety procedures were according to the law, with the necessary certification. We’re still struggling to understand what happened,” he had said.
Magistrate Doreen Clarke has now been assigned to the case, which is expected to start being heard in October.
Additional reporting by Caroline Muscat.