Saviour Balzan stands by phone-tapping claims

Mediatoday's managing editor Saviour Balzan is standing by claims he made in his Sunday column in MaltaToday that individuals in the Police's Cyber Crime Unit have unlawfully tapped his mobile phone.

"The information I have given is 100% correct and valid as at 2007. Furthermore the equipment needed for this operation was visually verified in May 2012. Both the security service and the Cyber Crime Unit within the CID building have direct connections to Melita, Go and Vodafone. They can barge into calls and also replicate Internet traffic," Balzan said.

Earlier today, the police force denied that its Cyber Crime Unit was ever equipped to carry out any interception of telephone communications. 

"The Cyber Crime Unit is neither equipped, nor authorized, to carry out any other form of interception of private or non-private communications. The interception of communications lies only with the remit and responsibilities of the Security Service as outlined in local legislation," the Police said.

The Malta Police Force categorically denied that any members of the Cyber Crime Unit had carried out any interception of communications of any kind or passed on any information emanating from Police investigations to organisations or individuals outside of law enforcement.

Balzan however said that difference between the two systems was that the Security Service has an immediate automated encryption, while the 'CID/Cybercrime' system is not fully automated and carries a delay.

"Both these systems are useless without the direct connection to the providers," Balzan said. "There are also portable systems that need to be physically in the same location of the subscriber within an area of approximately 100 metres. However these would also need an 'official' connection to the provider to decipher audio."