Karadzic demands information on Meinrad Calleja and Ciro del Negro
Karl Stagno-Navarra The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has issued a binding order against the Maltese government, giving it just a week to produce all information in its possession concerning convicted cocaine trafficker Meinrad Calleja and his declared “acquaintance” Ciro del Negro, an Italian national who was expelled from Malta in 1995.
The two men were identified by name and nationality by the former Bosnian-Serb President Radovan Karadzic, currently in detention at The Hague and awaiting trial for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes stemming from the war in Bosnia during 1991-1995.
Karadzic – who this week submitted an amendment to his original request for information to the Maltese government – has asked Malta to produce all information concerning the “shipment of arms, ammunition or military equipment to the Bosnian Muslims in 1992-95 such as that engaged in by Meinrad Calleja, a Maltese national, and Ciro del Negro, an Italian national living in Malta, including material used in proceedings to exclude Mr del Negro from Malta such as intercepted conversations in which the arms smuggling was discussed.”
Radovan Karadzic’s request, together with the binding order issued by the ICTY, were delivered on Thursday to Ivan Fsadni, Malta’s Ambassador to The Hague.
Asked to comment, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg told this paper that the Maltese government “will reply on the basis of information, if any, procured from relative ministries.”
It is believed that the request has been subject of a meeting between senior officials from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Foreign Office and the Ministry for Home affairs, who in turn have asked the Attorney General for guidance.
The police and the Security Service have also been reported to be involved in the evaluation of the sensitive request.
Meinrad Calleja was arrested by the police in 1995 and was sentenced in 2001 to 15 years’ imprisonment after being found guilty on four counts of cocaine trafficking, conspiracy to drug trafficking and cocaine possession during and before November 1993.
The case was an offshoot of another trial in which his sister Clarissa was caught with one kilogramme of cocaine in her possession. She was acquitted of the crime after jurors believed her version of facts to the police when arrested, saying that the package was given to her at her father’s house by her brother Meinrad, and that she thought it contained money.
Their father, Brigadier Maurice Calleja, had resigned from his post soon after his daughter’s arrest.
In February 2004, Meinrad Calleja was acquitted of masterminding the attempted murder of Richard Cachia Caruana in Mdina, then the private assistant to Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami.
Prior to his arrest in 1995, the security services had photographed Calleja in Sliema with Ciro del Negro, an Italian national from Salerno, once married to a Maltese and employed as a seaman with Virtu Ferries.
Known as a wheeler-dealer, del Negro was implicated in a number of cases, however no charges were ever brought against him by the police for lack of concrete evidence.
He was suddenly ordered to leave the country in March 1995, after being declared as a ‘persona non-grata’ by the authorities.
A diary of his that was confiscated by the police confirmed his friendship with Meinrad Calleja and other people under investigation, but it later transpired that the man was ratting his own friends out to the media and the police for his personal gain.
Dossiers reportedly compiled by Maltese and Interpol investigators about the two men are regarded as “classified” by the Maltese government, and it is yet unclear if the authorities will surrender the contents to the International Tribunal.
Presiding ICTY Judges O-Gon Kwon, Christoph Flugge and Michele Picard upheld the request made by the former Bosnian-Serb President and ruled in favour of Radovan Karadzic and have the documentation forwarded by 11 September.
In their ruling, the presiding ICTY Judges said that “having already dealt with a similar request, the Government of the Republic of Malta should not need an extensive amount of time in which to respond to the amendment.”
The amendment follows a Note Verbale sent to the ICTY by the Maltese government on 12 August in which it was stated that the government made no shipments or sales of arms, ammunition or military equipment to the Bosnian Muslims.
It also denied having individual UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection Force) members from the Armed Forces of Malta in the region during the conflict.
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