PN General Secretary Paul Borg Olivier said in Court this morning that former Sliema Mayor Nikki Dimech had told him in a phone call that he had admitted to the police that he accepted bribes.

Dr Borg Olivier was testifying in a libel case he has instituted against MaltaToday.

The PN general secretary insisted that there was never any collusion between himself or the PN with the police in connection with the arrest and interrogation of Mr Dimech.

He said that two days before the interrogation, Mr Dimech himself, in an e-mail, told him that he was to be interrogated by the police in connection with alleged bribery involving a contract for the engagement of a projects manager.

Mr Dimech was asked to go to police HQ on August 11. Dr Borg Olivier said he tried to phone him at 2 p.m. but the interrogation was still in progress, and continued till 5.30 p.m.

He then managed to get through to Mr Dimech on his mobile phone at 7.14 p.m.. Mr Dimech asked him to call his landline. In the second call, Mr Dimech said he had admitted to the police that he accepted a bribe, Dr Borg Olivier said.

The PN secretary noted that a story about Mr Dimech's interrogation appeared on MaltaToday an hour before he spoke to Mr Dimech.

He said the PN had known about the allegations of financial irregularities involving Sliema Council  since January 2010 and he, as party general secretary, had been monitoring developments. 

During cross examination, counsel for the newspaper asked for the e-mail between Mr Dimech and Dr Borg Olivier to be exhibited in court.

Counsel for Dr Borg Olivier insisted against, saying there was third party information and publication would violate the data protection law.

The Court said that it would only accept publication of that part of the e-mail about the time of the interrogation.

The case continues.