CID inspectors 'learnt their lesson', no disciplinary action taken - Peter Paul Zammit

Despite admitting that two CID officers had behaved incorrectly, former police chief Peter Paul Zammit says he felt this did not merit disciplinary action.

Zammit was testifying before Magistrate Francesco Depasquale in his capacity as Police Commissioner between May 2013 and June the following year. The sitting pertained to a libel suit filed by Inspector Elton Taliana against the GWU weekly newspaper, It-Torca.

Zammit said the case exposed a communication breakdown between the criminal investigations department and the district police, two departments investigating the same case, the August 2013 hold-up of a Birkirkara confectionery.

Darryl Luke Borg, 27, had been wrongfully arrested. The mistake came to light when, two days later, Taliana arraigned Roderick Grech over the crime. Grech was handed a suspended sentence after pleading guilty.

The Police Board had chastised Taliana after he failed to alert his superiors about the CID error.

An internal report, published 18 months after it was made available to the Commissioner, recommended disciplinary action against two CID inspectors for the arrest of the wrong man. Taliana, the report found, acted according to protocol.

Zammit however maintains that no action was taken against inspectors Joseph Mercieca and Carlos Cordina because he felt it was “not opportune”.

Taking into consideration the two inspectors’ experience and previous conduct within the force, Zammit decided against conducting a full-blown prosecution. The inspectors, he said, had “learnt their lesson”. Taliana, however, had failed to inform his superiors that an innocent person had been jailed. And this did merit action, Zammit held.

Joe Zammit Maempel, Taliana’s lawyer, pointed out that Taliana had arraigned the right person soon after the release of a statement detailing his involvement with the police.

Zammit said that Taliana’s first priority ought to have been the release of the innocent man from jail. According to law, officers must ‘promptly’ decide whether to release or arraign a person being investigated.

Borg’s defence lawyers filed an urgent application for his release from jail on Zammit’s insistence.

The former commissioner maintained that the Police Board had missed the ‘bigger picture’, concentrating only on a single aspect of the issue.

The case continues in June. 

Lawyer Yana Micallef Stafrace appeared for the newspaper.