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Police Commissioner hires top criminal lawyer for libel case
In an unprecedented move yesterday, Commissioner for Police John Rizzo sued MaltaToday’s editors for libel, making recourse to top criminal lawyer Joe Giglio – traditionally found confronting police and prosecution lawyers – instead of making use of the government’s and police legal services.
Late last night Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg refused to comment on the matter. He was asked whether he was consulted by the Commissioner, and whether he had given the green light for the libel case to go ahead.
However, MaltaToday can confirm that government circles attempted to defuse the situation by suggesting that instead of instituting libel procedures, Rizzo should issue a press statement.
Rizzo sued MaltaToday Midweek editor Matthew Vella and managing editor Saviour Balzan, over the contents of Balzan’s opinion piece “I’m waiting”, published last Wednesday.
In the article, Balzan expressed his opinion on Labour deputy leader Michael Falzon’s public outburst, two weeks ago, in which he claimed he had “authorised” Rizzo to take steps against the authors of anonymous letters and emails received by Falzon.
One of the emails was from an admirer of Falzon known locally as a celebrity chef, who stressed party unity in the face of a bitter division between leader Alfred Sant and Falzon. The author of the email was called in for questioning, fingerprinted, his photos taken and computer confiscated, and forced to sign in at the police depot until his lawyer intervened. The latter procedure is known as police bail, and is usually applied to serious criminal investigations.
During the same outburst at the Rabat party conference, Falzon publicly called on the Commissioner to call in Saviour Balzan for questioning, after Balzan stated he was aware of the source of a poison-pen letter sent to Labour secretary general Jason Micallef.
John Rizzo originally replaced George Grech as commissioner of police after the latter resigned in the wake of a series of news stories published by MaltaToday. |
