Former police inspector David Gatt wanted former President and Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami dead for his role in having him dismissed from the police in 2001, a stunned courtroom heard yesterday.
Police Constable Mario Portelli gave a detailed description of an incident in April 2009, around the time when Dr Fenech Adami was ending his stint as President, which was pivotal in his decision to spill the beans on the former police inspector, now a lawyer, and his alleged criminal gang.
The two were at the Cafe Roma in Sliema with Fabio Psaila (who is wanted by the police in connection with a recent failed hold-up) when a news item appeared on TV about the President. At that point, an angry Dr Gatt, who at the time was battling in court what he claimed to be an unfair dismissal from the police force, said he had been patient enough with Dr Fenech Adami and that it was time to “pull the shutter down”, slamming his hand on the table as he spoke.
PC Portelli, who implicated Dr Gatt as the mastermind behind some of the most daring hold-ups carried out in the past years, said this scared him to the extent that he decided to call the President anonymously from a phone box in Żurrieq to warn him of impending danger.
Dr Fenech Adami was not the only target in Dr Gatt’s sight, according to PC Portelli. The lawyer also claimed he wanted to harm Attorney General Peter Grech for appealing a court decision to grant bail to his clients and alleged gang members, charged with complicity in the failed July heist on the HSBC headquarters.
He had his sights on former Police Commissioner George Grech and also the present Police Commissioner, John Rizzo over his dismissal from the police force in 2001, the witness added.
PC Portelli said Mr Psaila had also added names to the hit list and included the two police officers who had foiled the HSBC headquarters robbery as people he wanted to seek revenge on and another policeman who had once searched his friend’s car at the potato shed in Marsa.
The witness said the information he had on Dr Gatt was the source of many sleepless nights.