An editor of an English language newspaper insisted in court today that a police sergeant should have never been promoted to inspector because of allegations, speculation and rumours about his connections.
Saviour Balzan, MaltaToday managing editor, told Magistrate Francesco Depasquale that he had received confidential information from third parties that Inspector Elton Taliana had been friends with people convicted of drug possession and other crimes and had also worked as a bouncer at a Gozo discotheque.
Allegations about Mr Taliana and his past, as well as undated photographs with some of these people, were among documents Mr Balzan exhibited in court to defend himself from a libel suit Mr Taliana filed against his newspaper. The libel is over an article that linked Mr Taliana to the arsonattack on Mr Balzan’s residence in Naxxar.
“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 that soon after Mr Taliana became involved in the case of Darryl Luke Borg, who the Criminal Investigations Department had wrongly accused of a robbery, a third party contacted him in confidence saying that Mr Taliana’s private life involved people involved in importation of weapons and prostitution.
“This source is very trustworthy and a credible person so I decided to communicate directly to then Police Commissioner John Rizzo, telling him everything I knew. I revealed the identity of the source on the condition that he does not compromise or prejudice this source,” Mr Balzan said.
Mr Rizzo had “committed a mistake” and approached the source who decided not to say anything that he knew about Mr Taliana’s involvement, 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, that 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, despite revealing his source to Mr Rizzo, Mr Balzan refused to reveal his source in court and even refused to comment when Mr Taliana’s lawyer suggested that the source was Mr Taliana’s ex wife.
Things got slightly out of hand in court when Dr Joe Zammit Maemple, appearing for Mr Taliana, said Mr Balzan was “paranoid” and “needed a psychiatrist”, with Mr Balzan retorting that the lawyer had a “superiority complex”. This tit-for-tat exchange quickly degenerated into an insult match, before it was stopped by Magistrate Depasquale, who threatened to throw both out of the courtroom.
The case continues in April.