Police inspector threatens defamation proceedings against union newspaper

A police inspector facing disciplinary charges before the Public Service Commission over a wrongful prosecution, has threatened to file defamation proceedings against the General Workers Union organ It-Torca.

Elton Taliana, who was identified in a Police Board report of having omitted to inform the courts that Daryl Luke Borg had been wrongfully prosecuted, filed a judicial protest against editor Aleks Farrugia, demanding that he "respect the rule of law".

The protest accuses the editor of publishing malicious reports aimed at tarnishing his reputation. Taliana also claimed the newspaper carried articles concerning criminal cases which are still sub judice and that he could not respond to, without without prejudicing his own case.

"It is obvious, that anyone who is accused before a court of law tries to make false allegations in a newspaper because they cannot make those allegations during their evidence in court, because that would be perjury. But in a democratic country, criminal cases are judged by a court not by newspapers."

Taliana is holding Farrugia responsible for any damages he might suffer and reserved the right to file for libel should the editor not cease publishing "false and misleading allegations."

The judicial protest was signed by lawyer Joe Zammit Maempel.