Court to decide on preservation of phone records in FKK Acapulco case on 10 July

The court will decide whether to preserve the phone records of Minister Chris Cardona and his aide Joe Gerada regarding the FKK Acapulco case on 10 July.

The TAP files would be able to shed light on the whereabouts of the economy minister, as well as his aide, on the night they allegedly visited the German brothel, an allegation both deny.

TAP files include timestamps of calls made and SMSs sent, location area codes of where phone calls and SMS were made or data was used, the cell tower ID of the network of the foreign operator to which service is transferred when travelling abroad, and other such information. The request explains that the TAP file is only stored for six months.

A number of libel suits have been filed by the minister and his aide, Joe Gerada, against journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Mrs Caruana Galizia’s legal team had requested that the records be preserved, as phone companies only keep such records up until a certain date. Both the minister and his aide have objected to this.

Dr Cardona and Dr Gerada insist that they never left Essen. The brothel is located 20km out of Essen in Velbert.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale will deliver his decree on this issue on 10 July.

In an earlier sitting, Dr Joe Zammit Maempel and Dr Antonio Ghio (representing Daphne Caruana Galizia) argued that the files should be preserved and later down the line they could discuss the admissibility of this evidence. “This is indisputable scientific proof. The versions of the two persons in this case clash. This proof will 100% show who is lying. Someone will commit perjury in this case.”

Dr Paul Lia, in that sitting, had argued that there is no public interest in what Ms Caruana Galizia had written on her blog that gives the court a right to remove fundamental rights of individuals in this case. “She chose to make certain allegations which we say have nothing to do with his public life.” Dr Lia had spoken of the importance of defending an individual’s privacy. “We need to defend privacy, for all of us. It cannot be that people say whatever they want on social media, attacking someone’s character, family etc, as if that is ok.”

In yesterday’s sitting, lawyers appearing for Dr Cardona and Dr Gerada presented written submissions, and drew the attention of the court to a European Court Judgement regarding the preservation of mobile data being preserved for a particular purpose, but not for others.