Former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo was this afternoon found guilty of bribery, trading in influence and revealing official secrets in what will be remembered as a black day in the history of the Judiciary in Malta. Sentence will be delivered later today after submissions by the prosecution and the defence.
The verdict was delivered to a packed, silent hall by Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo who presided over a week-long trial held without jurors. The hearings ended on Thursday. After sentence was delivered and Dr Arrigo was moved to a holding cell at the back of the court room, several members of his family burst into tears.
Dr Arrigo, who resigned shortly after the allegations against him surfaced, had been accused of accepting a bribe of €11,650 when he reduced the jail term of drug trafficker Mario Camilleri from 16 to 12 years after an appeal in July 2002. He was also accused of trading in influence by trying to influence the other judges on the appeals court, and betraying state secrets when he revealed the court sentence before it was delivered.
The toughest fight during the trial was over the bribery charge, which Dr Arrigo arguing that his actions were not influenced by any gift since the sentence was in line with discussions held between the defence and the prosecution, and the money, which he had not wanted, was given to him after the sentence was communicated and not before.
"If I had to re-write that judgement a hundred times, I would do it the same way," he said when testifying.
The prosecution insisted that Dr Arrigo should immediately have disclosed the contacts he had had about the appeal case and the offers of money.
During the trial Dr Arrigo admitted to having revealed the court sentence before it was delivered, but his lawyers said they had reservations over whether a judgement qualified as an official secret.
All those involved in the corruption case, including former judge Patrick Vella, were jailed. Dr Vella, who admitted to accepting €23,000 in exchange for reducing Mr Camilleri's jail term, was sentenced to two years in March 2007.