Name of person who called about Bogdanovic arrest revealed

Police Assistant Commissioner Carmelo Magri had personally contacted the Gozo police over their arrest of former Malta international footballer Daniel Bogdanovic 

It was police assistant commissioner Carmelo Magri who contacted the Gozo police station on learning that Bogdanovic (pictured) had been arrested
It was police assistant commissioner Carmelo Magri who contacted the Gozo police station on learning that Bogdanovic (pictured) had been arrested

Police Assistant Commissioner Carmelo Magri, who is based at the police HQ in Floriana, has been indicated by MaltaToday journalists Saviour Balzan and Matthew Vella as the police official who personally contacted the Gozo police station to talk to senior officers about Daniel Bogdanovic’s arrest. 

Bogdanovic, a former Malta international, was arrested for threatening his Maltese wife and being in possession of a gun outside his Ghajnsielem residence a day before he was expected to play a Xewkija Tigers match against Kercem in Gozo.

It was Bogdanovic’s wife and her brother – Ghajnsielem footballer Ferdinando Apap – who filed a criminal complaint with the police on threatening mobile phone messages that Bogdanovic allegedly sent her, and which led to the player’s arrest.

The internal inquiry launched by the government, headed by former army commander Carmelo Vassallo to determine the facts of the case, was expected to hear how Bogdanovic, arrested at 7.30pm on Saturday, 29 October, was released on police bail the following day, Sunday, to allow him to play at 3pm that afternoon. Bogdanovic was subsequently arraigned under arrest in the Gozo court on Monday morning.

In a signed statement by the MaltaToday journalists sent on Friday evening to Home Affairs minister Carmelo Abela, Balzan and Vella said:

“We were not asked to appear in front of the inquiry board headed by former Brigadier Carmelo Vassallo so we have decided to submit a written declaration with the sequence of events about the whole event.”

In their three-page detailed declaration, the two journalists stated that Assistant Commissioner Magri had contacted a senior police officer to ask about the circumstances linked to the Bogdanovic arrest.

In their deposition Balzan and Vella said that the interest by Magri in the fate of Bogdanovic could only be due to the fact that Bogdanovic, a star player with Xewkija Tigers, was due to play a game the following day and that Magri had been informed of the arrest by a political figure from Gozo.

Bogdanovic’s release in breach of protocol

The journalists said that after Magri’s intervention, a conversation was held between senior police officers at the Victoria police station. The officers noted that the arrest of Bogdanovic would prevent his participation in an important football match. 

They both surmised that they could technically release him on police bail once the investigation was concluded. But in fact the investigation had not been concluded since Bogdanovic’s wife still needed to present documents, and the police required a police conduct report from the main office in Floriana.

It was clear, the journalists declared, that if the protocol were to be followed Bogdanovic would have had to be kept under arrest.

After the publication of the story in MaltaToday, the Sunday after the game took place, the two police officers confronted one another, and one of the officers alleged that the other was prone to take orders from Gozo Minister Anton Refalo, especially with regard to traffic offences reported during the week.

The declaration goes on to state that the police telephone call that led to the player being released was taken after a government official complained that Bogdanovic would miss out on an important football match.

Balzan and Vella also state that in the time after the publication of the story, the Gozo minister, who also served as a bank guarantor for the Xewkija Tigers Club, had stated in an interview with the newspaper Illum that he did not know Bogdanovic. 

It later transpired that the minister’s son played in a nursery and was trained in the under-15s of Xewkija Tigers by Bogdanovic himself, and the minister had met him on several occasions.