Brian Tonna and Karl Cini want Caruana Galizia blogpost removed

Two men at the centre of the Panama Papers allegations have asked the Data Protection Commissioner to order the removal of a blog post by Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

Brian Tonna and Karl Cini, Nexia BT officials, filed a complaint last August over a blog post that appeared online on 10 May 2017.

The blog post reiterated the allegations that Tonna used offshore setups to help process kickbacks for high-ranking government officials on the sale of passports. It also contained two images, showing Tonna’s and Cini’s passport details.

In his response to the Data Protection Commissioner, Caruana Galizia’s widower, Peter Caruana Galizia, said the complaint was based on a law that came into force on 28 May 2018, a year after the blog post went up.

However, Peter Caruana Galizia informed the Data Protection Commissioner that the magistrate leading the inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s assassination had instructed that the contents of daphnecarauangalizia.com remain untouched since it formed part of the proces-verbal.

“This means that the persons mentioned in it, including the complainants Brian Tonna and Karl Cini, are persons of interest in the murder investigation. Removing any part of the contents would mean being in contempt of court,” Peter Caruana Galizia said.

He also noted that Tonna and Cini had not filed any complaint until the journalist’s murder in October last year and failed to bring forward libel proceedings in the 12 months since the blog’s publication.