Valuri u integrita
In an interview some years ago, the magistrate spoke of the strong values bequeathed to her by her father. I imagine she was correct in this.
The other thing about this report, of course, is that it highlights the Greek tragedy that is Malta Today, which went from this kind of meaningful investigation to grinding the cheap axes wielded by Saviour Balzan and Roger de Giorgio, packing its newsroom with sad, weird, bachelor and bachelorette losers in the process.
Malta Today, 7 April 2002
Cauchi mystery persists as Herrera family deny father’s involvement
Lino Cauchi’s brutal and cruel murder remains shrouded in mystery but investigations carried out by MaltaToday over recent weeks have progressively lent credibility to one side of the allegations. These hover around incidents that took place in the turbulent days of a late seventies and eighties involving the sale of large tracts of land today worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Today this newspaper is publishing the shocking evidence given by Joseph Borg before Inquiring Magistrate Silvio Meli late last year. This contrasts greatly with the version of events given by Piju Camilleri the former Labour thug and Lorry Sant henchman in the same inquiry.
Joseph Borg, known for maintaining a fighting spirit when his wife died not long after a bomb was placed outside his home, was instrumental in confirming the corruption that pervaded under a Labour government in the late seventies and early eighties. His evidence finally led to the suspension of Lorry Sant from the Labour party after incriminating evidence was presented in court.
Excerpts of Joseph Borg’s evidence, also published last week, reveal how he alleges that in 1985 the late Justice Herrera had put undue pressure on him to reach an agreement with Piju Camilleri over pending court cases. But these were denounced as false by the judge’s children, Jose Herrera and Consuelo Herrera.
In a letter sent to this newspaper Labour MP Jose Herrera and Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera (see page 9) reiterate that their father had been acquitted of all the allegations by the Permanent Commission Against Corruption, which had investigated the case.
Borg also alleges that Judge Herrera was given building permits in a green area in Zejtun soon after the alleged threat took place in the courtroom. Justice Herrera had defended himself by saying that he had applied for the permits on behalf of his wife’s family who owned the property.
The conclusions of the Permanent Commission against Corruption, presided over by Justice Victor Borg Costanzi, state that “there is no evidence to show that Judge Herrera was involved in any act of corruption in the occasion of the issuing of building permits”.
But the Commission’s report confirms that the late Justice Herrera did confide to a prominent lawyer that Lorry Sant would arrange for him to have permits for development.
The Commission did not stop here. It concluded that permits for the property owned by Justice Herrera could only have been issued by works minister Lorry Sant himself.
The Commission’s report also concludes that “Joseph Borg, a person who was very attentive because of what he had suffered, could have, from his position, genuinely formed an opinion that the Judge was involved in an act of corruption”.
However, further investigations by this newspaper reveal that the Herreras’ were not at all out of touch with the property business as stated by Justice Herrera in a number of statements.
Company documents in MaltaToday’s possession show that in 1990 Dr Joseph Herrera was appointed as a director to a property company in which his son Jose Herrera was also a shareholder. Another judge who now faces serious allegations of fraud also had an indirect interest in the property company, which had taken a substantial loan in 1987 to acquire a large villa in Sliema.
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There’s no smoke without fire.
Hmm….cobweb?
This might be of interest to some:
http://docs.justice.gov.mt/SENTENZI2000_PDF/INDEX/78_1994_2_408_1650.PDF