State agency Identità has denied allegations that its Msida premises suffered a security breach or having received orders from a magistrate to seal off one of its archives. 

This comes after lawyer and former PN MP Jason Azzopardi claimed that the building suffered a security breach early this morning after the alarm went off in its "server room". 

Azzopardi claimed that this alleged breach happened just the morning after an inquiring magistrate ordered the archives of the Expatriate Unit to be sealed off. 

However, in a statement on Thursday, Identità rubbished these claims and said that while the alarm did go off in the building earlier this morning, it was a false alarm and no foul play is suspected. 

Preliminary findings suggested that the alarm was caused by a faulty sensor and that an inspection of the server room and the rest of the premises revealed "no issues or irregularities".

"There was no security breach, and the agency’s systems remain fully intact. A review of CCTV footage showed no signs of foul play. All logs and CCTV footage are meticulously preserved as a preventive measure to ensure complete transparency," they said. 

Identità said that no applications or submitted documents are kept in the room in question because its servers are hosted by MITA. 

The agency also said that it received no ruling or order from the magistrate conducting the inquiry but clarified that management had chosen to seal the Expatriates Unit's archives on its own initiative. 

"Identità premises are under constant surveillance by security personnel, with 24/7 monitoring. All entry logs and CCTV footage are securely recorded and accessible exclusively by authorised compliance personnel," they said. 

Just last week a magistrate upheld a request by Azzopardi to have a magisterial inquiry into an alleged racket in which Identità officials are said to have fraudulently issued Maltese ID cards on the basis of forged documents. 

Azzopardi has claimed that some 18,000 ID cards were issued in this manner.