Police chief Angelo Gafà on Saturday said he respects calls for investigations into politicians but declined to comment on whether these had already begun. 

Th commissioner of police has come under fire in recent weeks with civil society groups accusing him of dragging his feet when it comes to investigating high-profile political figures.  

NGO Repubblika held a 72-hour sit-in outside the police headquarters in Floriana in October claiming police "inaction" on former minister Konrad Mizzi. 

“I respect everyone in society, especially those who speak up for one cause or another. As police commissioner, I don’t have the privilege of being able to express a personal opinion and I cannot engage in political debates,” he said.  

Gafà was being interviewed on 103 Malta's Heart by radio host and academic Andrew Azzopardi.  

Pressed on whether the police are indeed investigating Mizzi and other senior Labour government officials - past and present - Gafà held his cards close to his chest.  

“Like much of the work done by police I must remain silent,” he said.   

“As a point of principle, I can't get into individual cases. What I can say is that the police do take action and investigate.”  

Repubblika president Robert Aquilina at a protest outside police HQ last month.

Gafà also weighed in on the complexity of corruption and bribery cases, especially when there is a money laundering element. 

“I think people can now appreciate the complexity of such cases. A magisterial inquiry into these cases can take months if not years, and require experts that often can’t be found in Malta. Evidence from money trails to digital evidence takes a lot of work to be made sense of,” he said. 

Gafà said the police force is constantly trying to keep up with technological developments and had even launched a new blockchain analysis unit.  Who could have imagined this a few years ago? He asked. 

He also had words of praise for officers working on money laundering cases. Ineffectiveness by the police when it comes to prosecuting money laundering cases was repeatedly raised as a leading concern in a review of the country which eventually saw the islander added to a list of untrustworthy financial jurisdictions.  

Gafà said that this year the police had opened 47 cases of money laundering, involving some 117 people.  

By way of comparison, in 2018 the police had initiated just nine cases.

Go back a few more years, he said, and the police were not prosecuting anyone at all for this sort of crime.