PN demands explanations from Police Commissioner over Cyrus Engerer charges. Minister 'cannot speak' before police

Just 10 days following Cyrus Engerer’s defection from the Nationalist Party to the Labour Party, and a day after MaltaToday revealed how Engerer’s father had been arrested over possession of half a joint, Engerer is now facing a series of charges, accusing him of keeping and/or circulating pornography and of computer misuses. 

The police action is being based on allegations by a former boyfriend of Cyrus Engerer, the couple parted acrimoniously in 2009. The charges against Engerer were filed in March 2010, raising questions as to why the police sat on the same charges for 18 months, and acted only now that he resigned from the PN and defected to Labour.

The Times, said that it had seen the charge sheet against Engerer.

Until this report Cyrus Engerer said he had not received the police citation informing him about his charges and was made aware of the police action through a journalist from The Times.  

According to The Times, Engerer is also accused of vilifying Marvic Camilleri, a former employee of the PN and former member of the PN youth movement, who has since gone on record to know nothing about the case and wants the charges to be dropped.

MaltaToday is informed that Marvic Camilleri was Engerer’s ex-boyfriend and their relationship had ended “acrimoniously” in 2009.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi commented this morning that "government does not interfere with police work", but in a statement issued later in the morning, the PN said that it expected the Police Commissioner to explain the sequence of events that led to the issuance of charges by the police against Cyrus Engerer.

The PN also demanded explanations into the arrest of Cyrus Engerer's father Chris last week. Events, the party said, all happened a few days after Cyrus Engerer's resignation from the PN and defection to Labour.

Cases of this sort do not make headlines, given that courts usually issue a ban on the publication of both the defendant and the plaintiff. But The Times publication of the story with names and a photograph, prejudicate the case as brought against Cyrus Engerer.

Meanwhile, the police commissioner has called a press conference at the police headquarters at 4pm.

In another turn of events, Darrell Pace, a spokesman for home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici told MaltaToday that the minister "cannot comment on the matter until the Police Commissioner gives his version of events."

The spokesman added that Cyrus Engerer's father was "not arrested with just half a joint" as was reported in MaltaToday last Sunday.

He invited the media to forward all questions to the Police Commissioner.