Corruption update: Police Commissioner instructed officers not to issue charges against his former client

Do you know who I am? Peter Paul Zammit, centre, with the Police Minister’s sidekick, Silvio Scerri

Finally, after months of requests by journalists under the Freedom of Information Act, an order by the ruling body and mounting fines, the Police Minister has published the report of an inquiry into why the Police Commissioner ordered his officers not to issue charges against a man who behaved aggressively at a police station.

And why, when the charges were issues all the same, they were ordered to drop them before the summons was delivered.

The inquiry board concluded its report in July last year. The Police Minister at the time was Manuel Mallia, who refused outright to publish it.

The Police Commissioner was his friend and personal appointee, Peter Paul Zammit, who had left the police force years before and had been working in a private law firm. He was ‘reinstated’ into the police force at Manuel Mallia’s request, after his predecessor, John Rizzo, was removed from the post to prevent him prosecuting John Dalli.

So now the inquiry report is public, and we know why Manuel Mallia refused to publish it and why Carmelo Abela has been dragging his feet: the board found that the reason the police commissioner ordered that no charges be made against the man, Josmar Agius, is that Agius was his client.

The Police Commissioner, in other words, was his lawyer.