Inspector says lawyer warned him she would go to PM over ‘hidden recordings’

A police inspector told a court that lawyer Lynn Zahra, the partner of former Labour minister Joe Grima, threatened him that she would report him to the Prime Minister while confronting him in front of several onlookers.

Inspector Jason Francis Sultana was testifying in a slander case he instituted against Zahra.

Sultana told Magistrate Josette Demicoli that he was part of a group of policemen responding to another call when a report from Zahra, alleging that three men had tried to enter her Sliema apartment, was received. They were diverted to assist.

Sultana testified that Zahra confronted him after she saw him outside her apartment, loudly claiming that he had used his mobile phone to surreptitiously record her making a complaint at the Sliema police station for a possible criminal libel against blogger and Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Zahra is maintaining that the inspector had then sent the recording to Caruana Galizia.

“She also said she would speak to the Police Commissioner and that, if he did nothing about it, she would go to the Prime Minister,” said Sultana, adding that the intent to intimidate him was clear as she had insisted that “the story would not end there”.

His account was corroborated by two police officers, at which point Zahra interrupted, claiming that one of the officers had not been present.

A subsequent investigation by the police Internal Affairs Unit had resulted in Zahra’s allegations being declared unfounded, and Caruana Galizia had testified that she had not received a recording from Inspector Sultana.

However, Zahra persisted in her allegations, filing challenge proceedings against the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General, demanding they file criminal proceedings against Sultana.

On his part, Sultana then lodged a formal complaint with the Commission for the Administration of Justice and proceedings in this regard remain ongoing.