Lawyer demands criminal action against Caruana Galizia’s ‘police source’

Lawyer Lynn Zahra has filed challenge proceedings against the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General, asking the court to order him to take criminal action against an Inspector, alleging that he had passed on information about her to newspaper columnist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The application, filed by Zahra herself this morning, stated that in July 2013 she had read an entry on Caruana Galizia’s blog that alleged that somebody had recorded Lynn Zahra while she was discussing a possible libel case against Caruana Galizia with a policeman at the Sliema police station.

Zahra is insisting that she only spoke in the presence of Inspector Jason Sultana and Superintendent Ray D’Anastasi at the station. She alleged that during the conversation, Inspector Sultana produced his mobile phone from his trouser pocket and placed it on the desk between them.

The lawyer claimed that at the time it had not even occurred to her that he could be recording the conversation without her consent and that the recording somehow ended up in Caruana Galizia’s possession.

The application goes on to say that Caruana Galizia would frequently boast on her blog that she had many spies ready to pass on information to her.

Concerned by Inspector Sultana’s actions, she made a report to Peter Paul Zammit, then Commissioner of Police, former Acting Commissioner Ray Zammit and current Commissioner of Police Michael Cassar but without success, alleging that the latter didn’t show a great deal of interest in her claim.

She felt aggrieved by the fact that the two former police commissioners had “swept the matter under the carpet” in spite of reassuring her that court proceedings will be taken against Sultana.

When she called the Police Internal Affairs Unit last November, asking to be updated, she had been informed that the file had been lost and that she did not need to call about this case anymore.

However, the application goes on to say that when she informed incumbent Commissioner of Police Michael Cassar that she would be starting challenge proceedings, he told her that the file related to her complaint had been found and that he would send it to the Attorney General in order to advise him as to whether to proceed against Sultana.

Zahra claimed that five days ago, she received a letter from the Police Internal Affairs Unit, requesting her to attend a meeting with Inspector Jesmond Micallef at Police HQ with regards to this case.

She said she felt that Inspector Micallef, who was stationed with Sultana at the Sliema police station at the time of the incident, could not be impartial.