Every day for 17 years, Antonio Gatt and his family lived in fear of what the court was going to decide after he was charged with conspiring to deal in drugs.
The family knew he was innocent – all he had done was collect a parcel, containing what he believed to be auto parts, for his brother.
But the wait was a nightmare, prolonged through no fault of their own, until the day, nearly two decades later, that he was cleared of all charges.
“The day my husband was arrested was the day the catastrophe began. We were victims for 17 long years,” his wife, Catherine, 67, says.
Gozo Court. (Credit: Google Maps)
PN Spokesperson for Gozo Chris Said and Spokesperson on Justice Karol Aquilina have taken to task Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis for not finding the time to visit the Law Courts in Gozo. This criticism comes hot on the heels of stinging remarks made by Magistrate Joe Mifsud, reported by Newsbook.com.mt.
Magistrate Mifsud said that the Law Courts have no CCTV system and are not accessible to persons with disability. The magistrate said that, in spite of the fact that hundreds visit these premises daily, there was no CCTV camera footage when an accused assaulted a witness causing grievous bodily harm. Magistrate Mifsud said that the Gozo Law Courts follow a system of ‘Management by Crisis’.
Standards czar finds no ethics breach by Zammit Lewis in contract awarded to lawyer
Standards Commissioner George Hyzler finds no evidence of clientelism in Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis s decision to award a direct order to a lawyer from his electoral district • Lawyer was originally employed before Zammit Lewis took charge of the portfolio
22 January 2021, 6:10pm
by Karl Azzopardi
Standards Commissioner finds no ethical breaches in Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis s (pictured) decision to renew lawyer s contract
Standards Commissioner George Hyzler has found no ethics breach by Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis when he granted a direct order to lawyer Chery Azzopardi.
Prime Minister Robert Abela will soon mark his first year in office. I was going to write ‘celebrate’, but that is too much, even for the die-hard dyed-in-the-wool over their eyes laburisti, for they know that not everything’s alright in Bobbyland.
But in his mind, Abela is an intrepid sailor with a steady hand on the tiller as he navigates the waves, second or otherwise. On December 20, Abela bragged to his captive audience in Xewkija that the government “change” in January was a “real one”. This astonishing braggadocio sits awkwardly with his narrative of “continuity” with the Muscat administration he pledged during his leadership campaign.