Commissioner denies discussing investigations with ministers

Police Commissioner John Rizzo this morning categorically denied in court of ever having been influenced by anyone during an investigation or of having discussed cases with a minister.

He was giving evidence in three interconnected libel cases, one against One News editor Kurt Farrugia, and two against MaltaToday managing editor Saviour Balzan.

Speaking during the hearing of the case by Edgar Galea Curmi, who heads the Prime Minister's Secretariat against Mr Balzan on the drug investigation into Chris Engerer, the Commissioner said that following a raid on Mr Engerer's premises, assistant commissioner Neil Harrison, who is in charge of drug squad, phoned him and said that Mr Engerer was making allegations against the police saying that the raid was politically motivated because his son had just resigned from the PN.

Mr Rizzo said he informed then Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici of the situation.

Shortly afterwards he received a phone call from the minister while he was at home and the minister asked him if he knew anything about a case involving Cyrus Engerer (Chris Engerer's son).

The Commissioner said he replied he did not but asked for a minute to check. He called the superintendent in charge of the Valletta district, Sandra Mamo who said she was not aware of any case at the time.

The Commissioner said he was led to Police Inspector James Grech who was investigating the case Cyrus Engerer versus Marvin Camilleri. This had to do with the distribution of pornographic material.

Mr Rizzo said he spoke to Mr Grech's superior Supt Neville Aquilina who confirmed that an investigation was underway and that he had instructed James Grech to proceed with the investigation.

He recalled that the story was broken in The Times and as the police were being bombarded with questions from every angle, he decided to hold a press conference to explain to everyone what was going on.

Mr Rizzo said he had no doubt that his officials had acted correctly and had nothing to hide.

He said that the day after, Mr Galea Curmi called him and made the same allegations that Insp. Harrison had spoken to him about.

He said he was under the impression that Cyrus Engerer was next to Mr Galea Curmi during the conversation.

Mr Rizzo said he later also received a call from Cyrus Engerer's lawyer who asked for an explanation about what was happening but he did not feel he needed to explain anything.

Questioned by Mr Balzan's lawyer Tony Abela, who is also deputy leader of the Labour Party, Mr Rizzo denied that he had been in any way influenced by Mr Galea Curmi or anyone else for that matter in any investigation.

He said that the only person he consulted during investigations was the Attorney General. .

At this point, Dr Abela remarked that Mr Rizzo could speak about investigations to some minister. The Commissioner raised his voice and said "never, never and never".