Watch: Jeremy Cassar Torregiani Still Not Ruling Out Taking National Bank Case To ECHR
Jeremy Cassar Torregiani is still not excluding taking the longstanding National Bank case to the European Court of Human Rights.
In an interview on Il-Każin, Cassar Torregiani said that he and other National Bank plaintiffs are assessing their options after the Constitutional Court cut their compensation package from €111 million to around €71 million.
“The only remaining option, if we are not satisfied with this decision, is to take the case before the European Court of Human Rights,” he said.
“If there’s a chance we could win the case, why not?”
He pointed out that even Dom Mintoff, whose government nationalised the National Bank back in the 1970s, had filed an ECHR case to demand compensation for the construction of a power station outside his Delimara home.
However, the former Prime Minister ended up losing that case.
Cassar Torregiani’s father was one of a number of shareholders of the National Bank, when it was nationalised by Mintoff’s government in 1973 and turned into Bank of Valletta.
The government back then had voiced serious concerns at the state of the banking sector, particularly following a run on deposits.
The Constitutional Court recently ruled that the former shareholders and their heirs be given around €71 million in compensation, down from the €111 million that a previous court had awarded them.
Cassar Torregiani said the judgement is “morally positive since it acknowledges that BOV was stolen to become what it is today”.
However, he argued that the compensation is too low.
“Imagine if I seized your business, kept it for 50 years, expanded it, and paid dividends to shareholders, all without giving you anything in return. Then, after half a century, I hand you just three or four months’ worth of profit. How would you feel?”
Cover photo: Il-Każin