When David Gatt was arrested at his legal office, prosecuting inspector Joe Mercieca had told the court that he had found a Godfather movie poster hanging above his desk and a flag of Israel, while the star witness, at the time police constable Mario Portelli, claimed Gatt was obsessed with the structure of mafia organisations.
Inspector Joseph Mercieca, who was prosecuting together with Inspector Michael Mallia, had also noted how Dr Gatt liked to compare himself with infamous Mafia boss Toto Rina – ‘il capo dei capi’ (the boss of bosses).
PC99 Mario Portelli knew Gatt because Gatt was an inspector before the latter enrolled himself in the law course. He had been fired from the police force in 2001 because Commissioner John Rizzo at the time believed he was involved with criminals. The exact information is that there were phone transcripts between him and George Briffa, another criminal from Valletta known as il-‘Piccoli’, who together with Joseph Grech, was accused of stealing over €2.4 million in a hold-up of a cash van in Sta Venera in 2000. The money was later recovered. However, both men were acquitted due to insufficient evidence. But what about these phone transcripts? Weren’t they enough evidence? According to John Rizzo, “Gatt had been intercepted in phone calls the Security Services were tapping from the G4S heist suspects. He had said about Gatt’s conversations with George Briffa: ‘Not only did he communicate more than once, but he communicated in such a way as to give certain information as to how the suspect should act to police suspicion.’ This site was informed that these transcripts were published by the Malta Independent, but I couldn’t find any. Can the media portal verify?
Malta Today‘s exact reporting was: “But the very transcripts would eventually be removed from the court record, after the court upheld an application from Gatt’s defence team because the warrant for the telephone interceptions was never presented in court: a procedural bungle that might have cost the prosecution its case.”
Malta is so small. Same building with the stairs. Same ‘mishaps’. Same ‘misfortune’.
Were the phone transcripts removed from the court file because the tapping was not authorised by the minister? Why and by whom?
This site has also received information that Gatt was also reported for being allegedly involved in the homicides of Raymond Agius ‘il-Maksar’, a certain Renzo Borg and Joe Baldacchino. More about these murders in the future.
Ivan Portelli, another police inspector, was also fired at the time, accused for boarding a yacht to Gozo belonging to car dealer and police informant, the same Raymond Agius ‘il-Maksar’ along with Jack Farrugia and judge Godwin Muscat Azzopardi. Both dismissals were challenged in a constitutional court by both officers. Times of Malta had reported that both were ordered reinstatement by the Constitutional Court.
However, according to information that reached this site, David Gatt had lost the case. Can it be verified?
However, whether Gatt was reinstated or not is not really an issue. Why? Because shouldn’t the reasons for these dismissals still raise eyebrows? I am not going to debate the innocence of both, but let’s just take the names that come up in the story of Ivan Portelli: Isn’t the fact that the yacht belonged to Raymond ‘il-Maksar,’ who was coldly shot dead seven years later, in 2008, at the Butterfly Bar in Birkirkara, strange? Weren’t the Maksar brothers, the same who supplied the bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, the sons of this slain Raymond ‘il-Maksar’?
Malta is so small. Same names coming up. Same crimes of thefts. Same robberies. Same criminal underworld. Same David Gatt. Same Maksar.
Do you smell rats, while you scratch your head trying to undo the web?
The Trial of David Gatt – the Dismissal from the Police Force
When David Gatt was arrested at his legal office, prosecuting inspector Joe Mercieca had told the court that he had found a Godfather movie poster hanging above his desk and a flag of Israel, while the star witness, at the time police constable Mario Portelli, claimed Gatt was obsessed with the structure of mafia organisations.
Inspector Joseph Mercieca, who was prosecuting together with Inspector Michael Mallia, had also noted how Dr Gatt liked to compare himself with infamous Mafia boss Toto Rina – ‘il capo dei capi’ (the boss of bosses).
PC99 Mario Portelli knew Gatt because Gatt was an inspector before the latter enrolled himself in the law course. He had been fired from the police force in 2001 because Commissioner John Rizzo at the time believed he was involved with criminals. The exact information is that there were phone transcripts between him and George Briffa, another criminal from Valletta known as il-‘Piccoli’, who together with Joseph Grech, was accused of stealing over €2.4 million in a hold-up of a cash van in Sta Venera in 2000. The money was later recovered. However, both men were acquitted due to insufficient evidence. But what about these phone transcripts? Weren’t they enough evidence? According to John Rizzo, “Gatt had been intercepted in phone calls the Security Services were tapping from the G4S heist suspects. He had said about Gatt’s conversations with George Briffa: ‘Not only did he communicate more than once, but he communicated in such a way as to give certain information as to how the suspect should act to police suspicion.’ This site was informed that these transcripts were published by the Malta Independent, but I couldn’t find any. Can the media portal verify?
Malta Today‘s exact reporting was: “But the very transcripts would eventually be removed from the court record, after the court upheld an application from Gatt’s defence team because the warrant for the telephone interceptions was never presented in court: a procedural bungle that might have cost the prosecution its case.”
Malta is so small. Same building with the stairs. Same ‘mishaps’. Same ‘misfortune’.
Were the phone transcripts removed from the court file because the tapping was not authorised by the minister? Why and by whom?
This site has also received information that Gatt was also reported for being allegedly involved in the homicides of Raymond Agius ‘il-Maksar’, a certain Renzo Borg and Joe Baldacchino. More about these murders in the future.
Ivan Portelli, another police inspector, was also fired at the time, accused for boarding a yacht to Gozo belonging to car dealer and police informant, the same Raymond Agius ‘il-Maksar’ along with Jack Farrugia and judge Godwin Muscat Azzopardi. Both dismissals were challenged in a constitutional court by both officers. Times of Malta had reported that both were ordered reinstatement by the Constitutional Court.
However, according to information that reached this site, David Gatt had lost the case. Can it be verified?
However, whether Gatt was reinstated or not is not really an issue. Why? Because shouldn’t the reasons for these dismissals still raise eyebrows? I am not going to debate the innocence of both, but let’s just take the names that come up in the story of Ivan Portelli: Isn’t the fact that the yacht belonged to Raymond ‘il-Maksar,’ who was coldly shot dead seven years later, in 2008, at the Butterfly Bar in Birkirkara, strange? Weren’t the Maksar brothers, the same who supplied the bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, the sons of this slain Raymond ‘il-Maksar’?
Malta is so small. Same names coming up. Same crimes of thefts. Same robberies. Same criminal underworld. Same David Gatt. Same Maksar.
Do you smell rats, while you scratch your head trying to undo the web?