Karol Aquilina charged in court over dangerous driving

The Nationalist Party’s exspokesperson for justice and electoral reform Karol Aquilina was charged in court on Tuesday with dangerous driving in an incident that took place two years ago.

The incident in question occurred in December 13 Road in Marsa in June 2019, when Aquilina allegedly refused to obey police instructions while driving.

Footage of the incident, which was brought to light by Labour television host Karl Stagno Navarro on his programme ‘ Pjazza’, shows Aquilina’s car in front of a vehicle which was to be used officially as it drove in the direction of Valletta, despite orders to the contrary from two police officers on motorbikes.

A traffic police officer serving as an escort testified in court yesterday morning that Aquilina’s car ended up in the middle of a line of such cars.

Charles Zammit, a driver of one of the cars and owner of three cars in the escort, also testified.

He added that he had bought and installed the dash-cameras of the car which had recorded the incident, and that one of the police officers asked for the video to pass it on to his superiors. Zammit said that he downloaded the videos and passed them on to the sergeant in question.

Another escort sergeant who was set to testify in court yesterday filed an application not to testify in the case. The court rejected this request and found the man guilty of contempt for failing to testify. He was fined €400.

Aquilina’s case has been adjourned until 15 February 2022 at 9:30AM.

Last month, Aquilina shared an email to Opposition Leader Bernard Grech saying that he was innocent of the dangerous driving charges and that he will fight to prove himself in court.

In the email, he announced that he had tendered his resignation from his internal party roles and from his spokesperson role in order to uphold the highest ethical and behavioural standards required of a politician.