The Meinrad Calleja trial week 4 • February 1 2004

Anxiously awaiting the verdict

Matthew Vella

The Meinrad Calleja trial edges close to a much-awaited end following four weeks of testimonies and evidence submitted by the prosecution and defence. The prosecution, led by deputy Attorney General Silvio Camilleri, accused Meinrad Calleja of having plotted and commissioned the murder of the Prime Minister’s aide, Richard Cachia Caruana.
Calleja, 41, from Swieqi, is pleading not guilty to the charges. He is currently serving a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment on drug charges, after being found guilty in a trial by jury back in 1995.
His trial was replete with new revelations from witnesses who claim that star witness Joseph Fenech, known as Zeppi l-Hafi, was present on the crime scene and the one who stabbed Cachia Caruana, although Fenech has denied he was ever in Mdina on December 8, 1994. Crime scene witness Nicholas Jensen Testaferrata told the Court in the third week of hearings that he was definitely sure he saw Fenech stabbing Cachia Caruana, a claim repeated by Ian Farrugia, who had been commissioned by Fenech to carry out the killing along with Carmel Attard ‘iz-Zambi.’
Speaking about the presidential pardon awarded to Fenech by Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami in return for his testimony in court, Degaetano said the pardon was given on condition that Fenech says the truth, "the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth," in both the attempted murder case, the pending drug charges and attempted robbery.
"This means that he has a sword on his head in that he can be subject to proceedings again. The fact that he has the pardon does not mean that his testimony has less or more value than that of other witnesses. However, one must keep in mind that he was surely involved in the case," the chief justice said.
According to witness Edwin Grech, father of Karen Grech, who died at the hands of an anonymous letter bomb 26 years ago, in 1992 Fenech offered to bring over an ex-pat living in Australia who could shed light on his daughter’s death, naturally in return for money, but only after Fenech arranged a presidential pardon for the person to return safely to Malta. Fenech denied mentioning the presidential pardon – after all, as claimed in his initial testimonies in the trial, he never knew what a presidential pardon was until he was awarded the pardon in return for naming the mandate of the attempt on Richard Cachia Carauana’s life. "Grech was drunk, whisky bottle in hand," Fenech claimed.
Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano told jurors to use their common sense and "sift the wheat from the chaff," when he concluded his nine and half hours of deliberation at one ‘o’ clock yesterday afternoon.
Degaetano told the nine jurors to consider what they had heard by both the prosecution and the defence, and reminded them it was their right to interpret the evidence. He offered jurors a framework with which to analyse the evidence, and told themselves who had assailed Richard Cachia Caruana, whether there had been a motive, and what was Joseph Fenech’s involvement in the whole affair.
He also asked jurors to analyse the prosecution’s link between the arson attacks on the front doors of Cachia Caruana’s acquaintances, Daphne Caruana Galizia and Adrian Strickland.
Most importantly, the chief justice said that the Prime Minister's testimony about his conversation with Carmel ‘iz-Zambi’ Attard at the police general headquarters in Floriana was a circumstance that could corroborate Fenech’s evidence as to whether he took Attard near the house of the person who commissioned the crime or not.
In his evaluation of Jensen’s testimony, Degaetano said both prosecution and defence had given different weight to the testimonies in the trial of Ian Farrugia and that of Meinrad Calleja.
The chief justice told jurors to evaluate Jensen’s consistency, which would determine the credibility of Joseph Fenech.
Crime scene witness Nicholas Jensen Testaferrata had his doubts and misgivings healed by time during the onsite inquiry in Mdina, when a running Fenech jolted back a persuasive flashback. Jensen claimed a running Fenech had convinced him that it was il-Hafi whom he saw stabbing Cachia Caruana.
The victim however disagrees: if it was Fenech he would have recognised him, a repeated surety which Cachia Caruana has insisted upon. Ian Farrugia, who had been commissioned by Fenech to carry out the crime but was liberated from all charges, says it was Fenech that stabbed and that Carmel Attard ‘iz-Zambi’ was asleep in the getaway car when the crime happened. Zambi wants to contest his guilty plea, citing pressure and fear of "greater men," and claims Farrugia had told him it was Fenech who carried out the killing.
Judge Degaetano also warned the jurors to be wary of making excessive use of Calleja’s drug history, saying there was no necessary link between the pending drug charges and the complicity in an attempted murder: "There were hundreds of people who have an appeal on a drugs case, but it never passes through their minds to get involved in an attempted murder."
In the defence’s final address to jurors later this week, defence counsel Emanuel Mallia told jurors that an important witness was still missing from the case, referring to Etienne Gatt. According to former Police Commissioner George Grech, both Calleja and Etienne Gatt (the son of former PN Minister Lawrence Gatt, who resigned following revelations that his Mosta office had been the site of drug deals, including his son and Calleja), had discussed their fathers’ resignations. Both agreed Cachia Caruana had been behind the resignations.