Updated: Edgar Galea Curmi: PN, PL trade charges

The Labour Party was manipulating facts and statements by the Police Commissioner to try to get its leader out of the tangled web he had found himself in, the PN said.

The PN was replying to a statement issued earlier today in which the PL said that the Prime Minister should quickly decide whether or not to dismiss his chief of staff Edgar Galea Curmi as his credibility was at stake.

Mr Galea Curmi has been under pressure from the Labour Party to resign after he admitted calling Police Commissioner John Rizzo to speak to him about the arrest of Chris Engerer, who is the father of Sliema deputy mayor Cyrus Engerer.

Mr Galea Curmi is insisting he has not done anything wrong and says that he called the Commissioner after Cyrus Engerer told him that his lawyer warned him  that his father's arrest would be linked to his resignation from the PN.

He argued that he phoned the Commissioner to seek an assurance that no one from the government had put this sort of pressure on the police.

Once he was assured by the commissioner that this was not the case, Mr Galea Curmi asked Mr Rizzo to explain the situation to Mr Engerer's lawyer, something Mr Rizzo decided against.

In a statement this afternoon, the PL said that more than 48 hours had passed since the Commissioner of Police admitted that Mr Galea Curmi had called him and asked him to speak to Mr Engerer's lawyer, something that was not acceptable.

Now that Mr Galea Curmi was saying he was not going to resign in spite of this admission, it was up to the Prime Minister to dismiss him.

If the Prime Minister continued to wait before taking such a decision, he would be showing uncertainty and a lack of decisiveness at a moment when he was expected to show that such political interference was unacceptable, the PL said.

But the PN said that during the news conference, the Commissioner specifically denied there had been any type of pressure or influence.

But rather than allowing the justice process to progress, the Oppositon leader had decided to involve himself in an active nad political manner in the issue.

The Opposition was manipulating facts and the truth and what the Commissioner had said.