Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit has denied Opposition claims that he abused his position when asking for phone logs in connection with a case being investigated by the Police Board.
In a clarification issued yesterday, the Police Commissioner said the logs were requested legally as the police were investigating one of their own officers over allegations that he tried to corrupt a witness.
On Tuesday, the Nationalist Party accused the Police Commissioner of abuse of power when he said in a television interview that he was in possession of phone logs connected with the case of Daryl Luke Borg, who had been wrongfully charged by police with a crime.
According to PN spokesman Jason Azzopardi, the Police Commissioner had no right by law to obtain these phone logs.
Logs, he said, could only be obtained if the police were investigating a serious crime. A meeting between the victim wrongfully accused of a hold-up and the Home Affairs Ministry chief of staff Silvio Scerri did not constitute a crime, Dr Azzopardi said.
However, in a clarification the Police Commissioner said the logs were obtained as part of an investigation into the actions of a police officer – whom he did not name – facing allegations of attempting to corrupt a witness.
“The police were duty-bound to investigate serious allegations of a crime involving corruption of witnesses and this justified the police asking for a call profile,” he said.
He added that the call profile involved information about calls and text messages but not the content. This was not held by service providers.
Mr Zammit issued the clarification after declining to respond to questions on the matter when faced by journalists earlier in the day after addressing a Europol meeting at police HQ.
As he walked out of the meeting, the Police Commissioner said: “Whoever is making the allegations needs to prove them.”
The controversy surrounding the phone logs first erupted when Dr Azzopardi claimed Mr Scerri had used a convicted criminal – Charles Attard iż-Żambi – to fix an appointment with the victim.
Mr Scerri denied the claim, saying it was Mr Borg’s family who asked to meet ministry officials.