The Data Protection Commissioner was yesterday asked to launch an investigation after a person's health records were cited in court during a libel case.

The request was submitted by Jo Said, who complained that social security official George Caruana had disclosed personal information about his health.

Mr Caruana gave the information when he testified in libel proceedings instituted against It-Torċa by Nationalist Party whip David Agius. Mr Agius had won that case but yesterday lost the appeal filed by the newspaper.

It-Torċa had claimed that Mr Agius told Mr Said in a private conversation that there was corruption within the PN.

In passing judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Philip Sciberras said he could not help but notice that personal sensitive data about Mr Said had been divulged during the proceedings, breaching his data protection rights, especially as this information was given without Mr Said's explicit consent.

Mr Cremona had been called to testify by Mr Agius. When he was questioned in court on whether Mr Said's information was accessible to the public, he had said it would be, but with the permission of the Director General of Social Security.

He said that naturally, the information was not easily accessible to the public because of data protection but department employees had access to the file.

In a letter to the Data Protection Commissioner, which was released to the press yesterday, Mr Said said he had not given consent to Mr Agius or anyone else for information about his health to end up in the hands of third parties.

He asked the commissioner to investigate and said he would cooperate with any inquiry.