Assistant police commissioner Silvio Valletta has not excluded the possibility that a politically exposed person is the mastermind behind the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Taking the witness stand on Monday, the assistant commissioner told a Constitutional court that "nobody is excluded" from investigations into the journalist's murder, which are ongoing despite the arraignment of three men on charges of having carried out the killing.
Mr Valletta was testifying in a Constitutional case filed by the Caruana Galizia family against him, the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General.
The Caruana Galizia family want Mr Valletta removed from the murder investigation, saying his marriage to Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana and seat on the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit board constitutes a conflict of interest.
Answering questions, Mr Valletta told the court that he had never reacted to blog posts Ms Caruana Galizia had written about himself or his wife.
READ: Judge slams 'manipulative orchestration' ahead of Constitutional case
He told the court this was not his first homicide investigation. When asked if any of the suspects in those preceding cases had written about him or his family, Mr Valletta said none had.
"But some threatened me with death," he added. "I still investigated the murders."
Mr Valletta told the court that he was informed that experts and the inquiring magistrate were in regular contact with the Caruana Galizia family.
This prompted lawyer Jason Azzopardi, who is appearing for the Caruana Galizia family, to ask who had informed him.
“My inspectors," the assistant commissioner replied, saying that he was informed that inspector Kurt Zahra "had a meeting with Peter Caruana Galizia and explained the evidence to him.”
Mr Valletta was unable to confirm whether Dr Caruana Galizia had asked for the meeting himself.
In a statement. the Civil Society Network said it supports the Caruana Galizia family's demand for the removal of Deputy Commissioner Silvio Valletta from the murder investigation.
"Since Deputy Commissioner Valletta is the husband of a minister of the government of Malta and therefore is considered by law to be a politically exposed person, his involvement in the investigation concerning a murder of this nature is depriving the Maltese of the certainty that police investigations regarding the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia are conducted with the objectivity and impartiality necessary in such circumstances and above all that all leads are investigated without any limitation whatsoever," the network said.
It said it is certain that the police force does not rely on only one high ranking official to investigate homicides and therefore in cases of a conflict of interest only those police officers who do not have a conflict of interest should be involved in the investigations.
"Assistant Commissioner Valletta should find the courage and decency to withdraw from the case and thereby allow the Maltese and above all the victim’s family to have faith in those who are entrusted by law with the responsibility to defend the rule of law," the network said.