The Police Commissioner’s public declaration on Net TV’s Iswed fuq L-Abjad discussion programme last week that he has the powers to request service providers to hand him telephone logs is an abuse of power and acts similar to those of a police state, shadow minister for home affairs Jason Azzopardi and PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said today.

Addressing the media at Dar Centrali this afternoon, both Opposition members referred to the case of Darryl Luke Borg who was wrongly accused of a hold-up. They said the Police Commissioner had requested the logs of calls allegedly made between the Home Affairs chief of staff Silvio Scerri, Mr Borg, his mother and Charles Attard known as iz-Zambi, and Inspector Elton Taliana.

Mr Scerri has insisted that he never knew convicted criminal Charles Attard and did not use him as a go-between to arrange a meeting with Mr Borg.

“The Commissioner of Police, in a bid to establish who was first to make the call and who approached whom first, used an Article of the Criminal Code (355AD sub para 4 and Legal Notice 198 of 2008), specifically created and agreed upon by both sides of the House during the previous legislature with the aim to fight organised crime, to establish something petty,” Dr Azzopardi said.

He said that someone has an interest in protecting the home affairs minister’s chief of staff.

“It’s simply absurd for the police commissioner to request service providers to provide him with call logs to resolve such a petty issue,” he added.

Referring to a case back in 2006, where blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia’s Bidnija home was the target of a highly serious criminal act, the Opposition members said that the service providers, ironically requested by then police inspector Peter Paul Zammit (today police commissioner) as part of his investigations into the case to provide a copy of mobile location data, had turned down Mr Zammit’s request, the issue ending up in court and the Data Protection Commissioner ending up defending the court’s decision that the logs will not be revealed so that the privacy of citizens is safeguarded.

“This particular case (Mrs Caruana Galizia’s) was a serious crime and yet the logs were not provided to the police; the case of Mr Borg is far less serious than the 2006 case and the logs were provided to the commissioner who in turn examined the logs and went public saying that the chief of staff wasn’t the one who approached Mr Borg but it was Mr Borg who made the first call,” Dr Azzopardi said.

The Opposition members pointed out that first and foremost the meeting between Mr Scerri and Mr Borg and his mother should have never taken place, let alone Mr Scerri allegedly requesting iz-Zambi – a convicted criminal - to approach Mr Borg to ask him to meet up with Mr Scerri, iz-Zambi serving as an intermediary.

Both the Opposition members urged the Police Commissioner to publish the logs and the reason why they had requested the logs in the first place. They also called on the Data Protection Commissioner to delve into the issue.

They said that the Prime Minister, Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia and his chief of staff should shoulder responsibility.

They added that engaging in such acts, referring to the police’s request to service providers for telephone logs, is simply undemocratic in a democratic country. By doing so, the right to privacy of citizens is being jeopardised, and this would only happen in a police state.

Mr Azzopardi said that the police only had the right to request such information in investigations related to crimes that carry a prison sentence of not less than one year.

According to both the Opposition members, a sworn affidavit made by Mr Borg’s mother states that her son was approached by a third person to meet with Mr Scerri.

Dr Fenech Adami said that Labour’s pre-election call for transparency, good governance and the safeguarding of civil liberties was not being put into practice. On the contrary six months after having won the general election, the Labour Party in government is breaching the fundamental rights of citizens by spying on the private lives of citizens. The police’s request for data on personal calls of Mr Borg could easily lead to phone tapping in the future.

Concluding, the Opposition members said that it’s fine for the Commissioner of Police to discredit one of his officials, referring to Inspector Taliana. According to the Opposition, Mr Taliana was not the one responsible for wrongfully accusing Mr Borg of a hold-up but it was two other CID inspectors who were responsible. But then it was not OK for the Commissioner to let Inspector Taliana tell his version to the media.

According to Dr Azzopardi, Inspector Taliana made a formal request, through his lawyer, to the Police Commissioner to speak to the media but his request was turned down by the Commissioner.