local news

The Tonio Borg Grech divide

A clash between Homes Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and Commissioner of Police George Grech has led Prime Minister to take the matter into his own hands.

Reports reaching MaltaToday talked of a showdown, but no one was talking unnecessarily yesterday.

On Friday evening the Prime Minister spent over three and half hours in the presence of the Home Affairs minister and the Commissioner, George Grech at the Police HQ. Meetings with the PM usually take place at the office of the Prime Minister.

The relations between the popular B’Kara based politician and the Gozitan police officer came to a head three weeks ago when the opening of a new lock up was postponed by a week.

A faulty air conditioning system was blamed for the postponement, but the reported reason was over the protocol related to the meeting.

When the inauguration finally did take place in an open courtyard, the behaviour between the two men was living proof of the strain.

The Commissioner has been the centre of some discontent and last Sunday, the Prime minister one of the Commissioner’s most ardent supporters went so far as to call on the police to re-enagage all their efforts to find the murderers of Karen Grech, Raymond Caruana, Wilfred Cardona and Lino Cauchi. His request was given front page coverage in last Sunday’s Il-Mument.

The bizarre request was linked to a more sinister impatience from senior government officials with the public perception that the police had in recent weeks which contributed in no small way in deflecting more flak on government.

The treatment meted out to photojournalists, the handling of protests, security for the Chinese president amongst others.

Apart from being Commissioner of Police, Mr George Grech is also head of the security service, the austere and secretive branch that is reported to be involved in the telephone tapping activities.