By DPA,
Valletta (Malta) : Malta’s former chief justice Noel Arrigo was found guilty Tuesday over his involvement in the biggest judicial scandal in the island’s legal history.
Arrigo was forced to resign six years ago for accepting bribes to reduce a drug trafficker’s sentence.
At the end of the two-week trial, which gripped the EU’s smallest state, Arrigo was found guilty of bribery, trading in influence and revealing official secrets. The sentence is expected to be handed down by Wednesday.
Arrigo was charged with accepting a bribe of 11,650 euros ($17,400) when he reduced the sentence of convicted trafficker Mario Camilleri from 16 to 12 years when he served as chief justice in 2003.
Chief prosecutor Anthony Barbara focused on police-intercepted conversations Arrigo had with the middlemen in this case, including a childhood friend.
The prosecution questioned the credibility of the former judge, who admitted during the trial that he had lied to police to derail their investigations.
“There is only one truth and his actions indicated what his intentions were. This is a person who never imagined he would be caught,” Barbara said.
Arrigo had resigned from his post shortly after former prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami exposed the scandal.
All those involved in the corruption case, including another former judge, Patrick Vella, were jailed. Vella, who admitted to accepting 23,000 euros in exchange for reducing Camilleri’s jail term, was sentenced to two years in March 2007.