A policeman told Court this morning he had been approached by Simon Balzan, the son in law of the 75-year-old 'whistleblower' in the Rita Schembri case and told that he could either tell the truth, say nothing or lie.

The ‘whistleblower’, Joe Borg, is being charged with sending a defamatory e-mail in which he allegedly attempted to blackmail Ms Schembri, who is the head of the Government’s internal audit bureau (IAID).

Ms Schembri is also a member of the European anti-fraud office OLAF and at the centre of an investigation that she requested for allegedly breaching ethics.

During the last court sitting, it had been claimed that PC Chris Granata and his brother Omar had been approached by Ms Schembri’s husband Mark who said he wanted to kill Mr Borg.

Taking the witness stand this morning, PC Granata said this was not the case. He was a policeman and would have reported the incident straight away.

He said he returned from abroad on Saturday evening and since then he had been approached by Mr Balzan who told him that he had three options when testifying - to say the truth, say nothing or lie.

Asked by defence lawyer Edward Debono why he did not file a police report about this, Mr Granata said he called police inspector Chris Pullicino and informed him the incident.

Interjecting, Inspector Pullicino, who is prosecuting said the witness had been given instructions which he would speak about if he was given a chance to testify.

Also testifying this morning was the head of the civil service Godwin Grima. He said the e-mail Mr Borg had sent Ms Schembri was subject to a privileged internal investigation, but he had handed it over.