The police have confirmed that they will appeal a court's decision to acquit entrepreneur Christian Borg of perjury.
Borg on Tuesday was acquitted of perjury in a civil case after Magistrate Astrid May Grima observed that the police had failed to present the transcript of Borg’s testimony.
Despite presenting supporting affidavits and official documents, the police's failure to submit the verbatim record of the testimony ultimately weakened its case.
The police told Times of Malta in reply to questions on Wednesday that they had filed a note of appeal.
Asked if the prosecuting officer would be facing disciplinary proceedings, a police spokesperson simply replied that a note of appeal had been filed.
"Further information cannot be provided at this stage due to ongoing court proceedings," the spokersperson added.
Borg achieved notoriety back in 2022 when he was one of four men charged with a botched kidnapping.
A court heard how he and his associates allegedly threatened to torture their victim and rape his sister.
He is also facing separate charges of VAT fraud and money laundering, with investigators alleging that he defrauded millions through inflated or fabricated invoices.
Borg is also a central figure in suspicious property deals involving Prime Minister Robert Abela.
Reacting to the acquittal, the Nationalist Party said on Wednesday that shadow justice minister Karol Aquilina went to the court registry to see how long it took to get an authentic copy of Borg's testimony.
"At 11:30 this morning, Dr Aquilina went to the Court Registry and requested to see the file of the civil case in question. He was given the file without any issues. Copies of the seven pages relevant to the criminal case were then made. Those copies were authenticated as "true copies of the original" and were stamped. This entire process took only 12 minutes!" the PN said.
Rule of law NGO Repubblika claimed on Tuesday the prime minister's "interference" in favour of his "criminal friends" was becoming evident.
"On the basis of what we are seeing in court, we are being increasingly led to believe that there is collusion between the prosecution and defence so that criminal cases involving Robert Abela's friends are dropped," the NGO said.