Police Commissioner John Rizzo would not say yesterday whether the Prime Minister’s right-hand man, Edgar Galea Curmi, had in the past made calls similar to the one he received last Friday about a case being investigated.
Mr Rizzo told a press conference on Tuesday that Mr Galea Curmi, the Prime Minister’s head of secretariat, called asking him to assure the lawyer of a suspect in a criminal case the arrest was not politically motivated. Mr Rizzo, however, felt he “should not do” it in order not to blur the line between politics and police work.
The suspect is Christopher Engerer, the father of Sliema deputy mayor Cyrus Engerer who on July 15 resigned from the Nationalist Party and joined Labour. Mr Rizzo said Christopher Engerer was arrested last week after being found in possession of marijuana following a raid by the police.
The police on Monday filed charges against Cyrus Engerer accusing him, among other things, of circulating pornography.
Labour leader Joseph Muscat is demanding Mr Galea Curmi’s immediate resignation over the phone call, which he deemed to amount to political interference.
The Times yesterday sent questions to Mr Rizzo asking whether the phone call by Mr Galea Curmi was the first of its kind he had received from him and whether similar calls had been made in the past, even on other cases.
The police force media unit replied: “Please note that any comment from this end is not deemed to be appropriate at this stage.”
The government has appointed a retired judge to hold an inquiry into the way the police handled the cases of both Christopher and Cyrus Engerer.
Mr Galea Curmi told The Times he never spoke to Mr Rizzo on “any investigation”, even though the chief of police always called him when he needed to speak to the Prime Minister. With regard to the phone call be made about the Engerer case, Mr Galea Curmi said: “I spoke to the Police Commissioner on an administrative matter not an investigation.”
“Of course, the situation would have been different had I spoken to the investigating officers or those directly linked to the investigation. But I did not. Nor did I discuss (Christopher) Engerer’s arrest or possible charges,” he added.
Mr Galea Curmi, who has defended his actions and refused to resign, is a family friend of the Engerers and the Confirmation godfather of Cyrus Engerer.
Mr Galea Curmi said on Tuesday Mr Engerer had told him that his father’s lawyer felt that the police raid happened to pay them back for his defection. Both the Office of the Prime Minister and the police have strongly denied this claim.
Referring to Labour leader Joseph Muscat’s call for his resignation, Mr Galea Curmi said he still could not understand on what grounds the demand had been made. “Joseph Muscat first accused us of persecuting Cyrus Engerer and then he seems to be accusing me of protecting him. The two are not compatible and we did neither of them,” he insisted.
“It would have been wrong had I actually not phoned the Police Commissioner to make sure there was no political pressure,” Mr Galea Curmi said, adding the allegation of a politically-motivated arrest was a serious one.
He said he saw nothing wrong with his request for Mr Rizzo to speak to Mr Engerer’s lawyer, even though he respected Mr Rizzo’s decision not to do so.
Mr Galea Curmi said he did not intend stepping down and the Prime Minister had not asked him to.