A police sergeant should not have been promoted to inspector because of rumours, allegations and speculation about his shady connections, a newspaper editor insisted in court yesterday.
Although the allegations were investigated by the police, no action was taken because they found no evidence confirming it, according to documents submitted in court.
Saviour Balzan, managing editor of MaltaToday, told Magistrate Francesco Depasquale that Inspector Elton Taliana had been the subject of confidential information he had received from third parties.
According to this information, the officer had been friends with people convicted of drug possession and other crimes and had also worked as a bouncer at a Gozo discotheque.
The timing of the arson attack was too coincidental
Allegations about Mr Taliana and his past, as well as undated photographs with some of these people and extracts from his police file containing the allegations, were among documents Mr Balzan exhibited in court to defend himself from a libel suit Mr Taliana filed against his newspaper.
In an article in 2013, the newspaper claimed Mr Taliana had been investigated over the arson attack on Mr Balzan’s residence in Naxxar in 2007. The police file documents are marked “strictly confidential”.
“All I had were allegations... rumours I had heard from third parties... speculation... and that is why I never wrote anything with this information,” Mr Balzan said.
He said he received the information soon after Mr Taliana became involved in the 2013 case of Darryl Luke Borg, whom the Criminal Investigation Department had wrongly accused of a robbery. This mistake came to light when Mr Taliana arrested and secured a conviction for the real perpetrator of the crime.
Mr Balzan said a third party contacted him in confidence saying that Mr Taliana’s private life included people involved in importation of weapons and prostitution.
“This source is very trustworthy and a credible person so I decided to communicate directly to the then Police Commissioner John Rizzo, telling him everything I knew. I revealed the identity of the source on condition that he does not compromise or prejudice this source,” Mr Balzan said.
Mr Rizzo had “made a mistake” and approached the source who refused to talk, Mr Balzan said.
He explained that, at a later date, he was contacted by a retired police officer who told him that on the day of the arson attack, which took place between 3.30am and 3.45am, he was on duty at the Naxxar police station till 3am. After that the police station was manned by a new policewoman.
“The confidential information I received was that the timing of the arson attack was too coincidental and then when one sees it in the context of the shady people he used to hang around with, things add up,” Mr Balzan said.
Under cross examination, Mr Balzan refused to reveal his source in court despite having done so to Mr Rizzo. He also refused to comment when Mr Taliana’s lawyer suggested that the source was Mr Taliana’s ex-wife.
Mr Balzan’s testimony got slightly out of hand when Dr Joe Zammit Maempel, appearing for Mr Taliana, said Mr Balzan was “paranoid” and “needed a psychiatrist”. Mr Balzan retorted that the lawyer had a “superiority complex”.
An exchange of insults followed but Magistrate Depasquale put an end to it by threatening to throw both out of the courtroom.
The case continues next month.
Lawyer Toni Abela appeared for the newspaper.