While Norman Vella was being questioned by police on Sunday, one of the inspectors received a call which she answered with the words “Who is Silvio Scerri?”, following which she replied that she will not give any information to anyone except to the police commissioner.
This forms part of a statement to the police made and signed by Norman Vella, who last Sunday was held for four hours at the end of his shift as an immigration officer, for allegedly taking photos of the government’s chief communications officer Kurt Farrugia and Home Ministry communications coordinator Ramona Attard at the MIA departure lounge.
In his statement to the police, Mr Vella said that while he was being questioned Inspector M’Stella Attard, in the presence of Inspector Silvio Magro and a police sergeant, received a telephone call which she answered by mentioning Silvio Scerri.
The name mentioned is the same name as that of the chief of staff at the Home Affairs Ministry.
Mr Vella has made his statement to the police public after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Monday said that Mr Vella had not been arrested. The statement is signed by Mr Vella and the two police inspectors who interrogated him.
On Monday, Mr Vella filed a court application to request that the mobile phone and tablet that were confiscated by the police to be returned to him. The case will be heard Wednesday.
Mr Vella, in his statement to the police, said he did not want his mobile phone and tablet to be confiscated and investigated in his absence. This is because on them he had private matters that regard his family members.
He declared that he was never shown the photo which was allegedly published on an internet site or, better, on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blog (which the blogger has denied ever being in possession of or publishing it).
He also declared that Inspector Attard told him that he was being investigated because a person or persons saw him taking photos.
He said that when Inspector Magro asked him to hand over the phone, Mr Vella did so immediately and showed him all the photos he had on the phone, including those of his relatives. None of Mr Vella’s colleagues were questioned by the police if they had seen Mr Vella taking photos.
He declared that since the investigators did not have the photo which was allegedly taken, they could not verify if, from the position he was in at work (the cabin occupied by immigration officers to check passports) he could have taken such photos.
He said that the investigators informed him that they will be seeing CCTV footage at the time the photos were allegedly taken. Mr Vella said that such footage could show him and his colleagues using their mobile phones and, if so, he said that he would be seen using it for personal matters and not for taking photos.
He declared that at the start of the investigation he was told that he would be suspended from work but this decision was revoked in the course of the investigation.
During the investigation he said he was shown Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blog and shown a photo that was dated September and which showed Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Mr Keith Schembri and Mr Kurt Farrugia. This photo was not taken at the airport. Mr Vella declared that he never met these three persons all at one go, neither at the airport nor elsewhere.
In conclusion, Mr Vella said that he wanted to make an official report for the police to investigate the people who filed a report about his alleged behaviour.
Earlier in the statement, Mr Vella confirmed that he was told that anything he said could be used against him, and he was also given the option to consult a lawyer, choosing to speak to Dr Karol Aquilina. He said he worked as a senior clerk in the civil service acting as an immigration officer.
He said he was on duty between 7am and 7pm, admitting that he made use of his phone for personal matters but denying that he had taken photos, or that he had passed them on to third parties.
He said that he had seen Mr Farrugia and Ms Attard at the airport, and that Mr Farrugia had asked him if he was “all right” and that he had replied in the affirmative and continued doing his job. Asked by the police officers, Mr Vella said he did not know if Mr Farrugia and Ms Attard were on their own.
Norman Vella's statement to the police in pdf below:
/uploads/filebrowser/Norman Vella statement to police_1.pdf
Silvio Scerri reaction
Meanwhile, Silvio Scerri reacted by saying that he was at home on Sunday and had not known anything about Mr Vella's case before reporters phoned him asking questions. He said Communications co-ordinator Ramona Attard was away at the time and decided to deal with the queries himself.
As a result, he phoned the Police Media section to enquire about the case. The officer at the CMRU then phoned the inspector in question telling her that Mr Scerri was asking what was happening.
Mr Vella said he had not asked about the investigation but was only trying to get replies to the reporters' questions.
"I never phoned the Police Commissioner, I never asked about the investigation, but had I not tried to reply to the reporters' questions, I would have been accused of trying to conceal details of the case," Mr Scerri said.
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