Matthew Vella
Sandro Chetcuti (pictured right), the construction developer who this week was charged with the attempted murder of GRTU director-general Vince Farrugia, had just acquired the radio station XFM along with former Nationalist minister Michael Falzon.
MaltaToday is informed that Chetcuti, 38, and Falzon had only recently forged a deal with XFM owner Mark Grima, with an application for their radio licence pending with the Broadcasting Authority.
Chetcuti was arraigned in court this week after brutally assaulting Vince Farrugia, 65, a former candidate for the PN in the 2008 European elections, at the GRTU offices in Valletta on Thursday.
In comments to MaltaToday, Farrugia said that it was GRTU president Paul Abela and two other persons who managed to pull Chetcuti away from him. “I never believed he would try to kill me… If they had not pulled him off me, he would have killed me. I was just a lump on the floor being punched and kicked with venom. I stood no chance.”
According to the prosecuting inspector, last Thursday Chetcuti waited for an hour and a half before meeting Farrugia in his office, where he shortly attacked.
MaltaToday is informed that Chetcuti had some outstanding issues on not having been re-elected as one of the GRTU council’s vice-presidents. “When council threw him out as vice-president he could not accept it,” a GRTU source told MaltaToday about Chetcuti. “When Vince told him the council had no faith in him anymore, he became vicious.”
According to the prosecution, Chetcuti told Farrugia he would kill him “if not today, tomorrow” as he was being escorted out of the building.
Chetcuti was catapulted in the public consciousness as a participant in the Where’s Everybody reality show called ‘Iva, Le, Ma Nafx’ – where undecided voters before the EU referendum in 2003 lived together for a week to debate their decision. Chetcuti’s appearance on other Where’s Everybody shows such as Xarabank, led to him getting noticed. Chetcuti’s public image even got him a part in Eileen Montesin’s soap Undercover – in the part of a police officer.
“He used to speak on Xarabank as a property developer, while we had contractors and developers as members and no-one was ready to take the lead,” Vince Farrugia told MaltaToday.
For some time after Chetcuti was approached by Farrugia, the two men had been close associates inside the GRTU. “Vince believed he could train him. And he did. But he also fed the lion,” the same GRTU source said.
Other GRTU members, who preferred to remain anonymous, remarked that they had expressed misgivings about Chetcuti running for the GRTU council. “We didn’t believe he was right for the council even though he was overwhelmingly voted in as one of the council’s vice-presidents.”
For some time he briefly flirted with Dom Mintoff’s anti-EU movement Front Maltin Inqumu. Chetcuti had famously called Vince Farrugia a “second Mintoff”, on account of his extraordinary negotiating skills. When Farrugia announced he was running for MEP, Chetcuti heaped lavish praise on the director-general: “I believe Farrugia has a remarkable ability to wear more than two hats simultaneously. But in Malta as soon as one contests with a political party, they are labelled a Nationalist or Labourite. This could affect the credibility of the union.”
Chetcuti also faced a storm of protest from his Santa Marija estate neighbours, when he purchased plots from the company Cenmed, with a waiver from landowner Albert Mizzi on conditions restricting development to one-storey bungalows. He proceeded with the development after a neighbouring property was granted a planning permit to build four storeys.
Josie Muscat, the founder of Eden Foundation, had come out in Chetcuti’s defence over his criticism of government’s failure in stimulating the property market, by declaring that Chetcuti had donated a Marsaskala property to the charity for disabled children.
Chetcuti, who has a clean police record, has pleaded not guilty to the charges of trying to kill Mr Farrugia, seriously injuring him, threatening him and harassing him and breaching the peace. He was remanded in custody.
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