Despite privacy ruling, MP insists that police chief is obfuscating

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has kept up the pressure on Commissioner of Police Peter Paul Zammit, calling on him to "stop humiliating himself and the corps" despite an investigation by the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC) finding the police had not accessed call logs, as alleged by the Opposition.

Azzopardi dubbed Zammit "incompetent" and accused him of being under the influence of the home affairs minister's chief of staff Silvio Scerri, over the way he handled the wrongful prosecution of Darryl Luke Borg.

According to the IDPC investigation, no private breaches took place because the police did not even request call profiles of four Vodafone telephone numbers of parties connected to a police board inquiry on the Borg prosecution.

However the IDPC added that had this request been made, it would have been unlawful since such requests can only be made on crimes that carry more than 12 months' imprisonment.

The original complaint, from the Opposition, was down to statements made by the Commissioner of Police that he had seen call profiles, namely a list of telephone calls and SMSes, that showed home affairs chief of staff Silvio Scerri had not called Borg and his mother Jane to testify on a police board inquiry.

The police board inquiry was launched to determine what had led to Borg's wrongful prosecution over a hold-up, which revealed that police inspector Elton Taliana had omitted to inform the courts that another suspect had been apprehended. But this omission led to Borg remaining incarcerated. Zammit has now referred the case to the Public Service Commission for disciplinary steps to be taken on Taliana.

Zammit's statement on TV that had seen the "call profiles" showing that it was the Borg family that contacted the home affairs ministry, led to the PN to lodge a privacy complaint.

The IDPC investigation found that the police had made no request on calls made between the 13-14 August - dates pertaining to the police board inquiry - but made a request on the 15 August for call profiles of the 4-6 August, dates pertaining to the hold-up. As stated by the IDPC, "this request had no connection or relevance to the alleged calls intended to put pressure on Darryl Luke Borg to appear before the Police Board."

Additionally, in his submissions to the IDPC, Zammit clarified that the "profiles" he had mentioned on TV actually referred to the call logs that are readily available on a mobile phone.

On his part, Jason Azzopardi is claiming Zammit has been contradicted by the IDPC's findings. "Zammit is trying to play around with words, by saying he was referring to call logs and not profiles. He should use the zeal he employs in covering up Scerri's affairs to fight organised criminality," the MP said.

Azzopardi is insisting that in two press statements on 23 and 28 August, Zammit referred to "call profiles" that both the police and the Security Services are empowered to extract from service providers, which are however only on crimes carrying more than 12 months' imprisonment.

"Zammit had claimed he was investigating allegations of corruption of witnesses and fabrication of false evidence against inspector Elton Taliana, so why was he examining the chief of staff's mobile phone and not Taliana's? is that how a serious investigation is carried out by somebody who should be serious, impartial and transparent?"