A police inspector has been suspended as part of an ongoing probe into whether he leaked confidential information to Yorgen Fenech’s defence team.

Inspector Elton Taliana was held for around 13 hours earlier this month after the police received information that he may have leaked details of an ongoing investigation into convicted fraudster Julian Hofstra, 21.

The Dutch national has recently been linked to alleged secret recordings in connection with the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case.

Taliana’s phone was confiscated and later returned.

The internal police probe is looking into whether sensitive information, suspected to have come from an active police file, was passed on to lawyer Charles Mercieca.

Mercieca, one of Fenech’s lawyers, was also interrogated by the police over the matter last week.

Fenech stands accused of complicity in Caruana Galizia’s murder in 2017.

Alleged database search and leak

Sources said that Taliana claimed during questioning Mercieca had approached him saying he could help the inspector obtain more information relevant to the drugs case against Hofstra.

Mercieca allegedly gave Taliana Hofstra’s name, which the inspector then ran through what is known as the common database. The database holds basic information about people who have lived in Malta and is distinct from a criminal database which police maintain.

Data lifted from Taliana’s phone shows that the inspector sent Mercieca a picture of Hofstra’s name and nationality taken from this common database together with a message saying “no hits”, the sources told Times of Malta.

They added that Taliana denied accessing or passing on any information from the criminal database, which holds sensitive information about investigations. Taliana told investigators he was merely trying to groom Mercieca as an informant on the case, the sources added.

Police confirmed on Saturday that it had suspended an inspector as part of an ongoing investigation. Taliana's lawyer refrained from comment. Times of Malta has also sent questions to Mercieca about the issue.

Claims of recordings with Melvin Theuma

Hofstra is alleged to have made secret recordings of conversations he had with Caruana Galizia murder middleman Melvin Theuma, who has testified that Fenech commissioned the journalist’s assassination.

Melvin Theuma.

Local media have reported that Fenech’s defence team have been trying to secure the audio recordings, which allegedly include conversations in which Theuma points a finger of blame at former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Times of Malta has been unable to verify these recordings or reports that Theuma once approached Hofstra to ask him to hack into Fenech’s e-mail account.

The police sources told Times of Malta they were trying to get their hands on these new recordings but are understood to be proceeding with caution, given that Hofstra is a convicted confidence trickster with a penchant for cyber fraud.

Police have reached out to the Dutchman who is so far not cooperating. He is currently serving time in an Amsterdam prison over an affiliate-marketing scam he operated for several months.

Hofstra's link to Malta

Hofstra first arrived in Malta in 2016 and the sources said at the time that he was on the run from Dutch authorities. He is understood to complete his sentence in May.

Hofstra came to the attention of police in Malta when a fight broke out between a group of local men and a Scottish national in Birkirkara last month.

Taliana was assigned to investigate the case.

During a search of the Scotsman’s phone, the inspector found evidence that he may have been involved in illicit drug activities.

A magisterial inquiry was launched and a police file started to grow. Shortly afterwards, they received information that Taliana may have passed over details of the investigation to Fenech’s team.

All involved adamantly denied the matter during the interrogations.

This is not Taliana’s first time facing an internal police probe. He previously had an internal disciplinary board summons after he was involved in the arraignment of the wrong man over a burglary in Birkirkara in 2013.

In that case he was accused of not informing other investigators that while they were planning to proceed against one suspect, he would be filing charges against another man.

He was eventually acquitted of wrongdoing.