Claims that a police officer was injured trying “to save Nicholas Azzopardi from jumping off a wall” remain shrouded in mystery as MaltaToday is reliably informed that nowhere is this documented on official police records.
Sources close to the Vice Squad say the internal police register makes no reference to the allegation carried on The Times’ front page on 1 May that a policeman was injured as he tried holding Azzopardi, carried under the headline “Policeman ‘tried to save’ Nicholas Azzopardi”.
Nor is there any mention of the alleged treatment the same policeman is supposed to have been given in hospital for “scratches on his forearms and chest injuries”.
The news shifts the onus back onto the police force to explain the suspicious claim made a full nine days after the death of Azzopardi after he was interrogated by Police Sergeant 656 Adrian Lia and Police Constable 1359 Reuben Zammit.

Azzopardi died 13 days after he was arrested and allegedly beaten up by police officers at the Floriana police headquarters on 8 April. Hours before he died on 22 April, he told his family and inquiring magistrate he had been heavily beaten up by his interrogators while under arrest.
His family believe Azzopardi was attacked by an officer who flung a side kick, breaking his ribs and puncturing his lung. His death is the subject of a magisterial inquiry by Antonio Vella, and of a parallel inquiry by retired judge Albert Manchè launched by the government following the publication of the revelations made by Azzopardi in MaltaToday.
Sources say the internal police report, which is so far kept under wraps by the police force, jars with the version given by anonymous sources to The Times at the beginning of this month.
The report is understood to be an extensive one delving into the timing, place and circumstances of the incident and also follows up Azzopardi’s condition in hospital until his death on 22 April, but it makes no reference to injuries that have been allegedly sustained by policemen or any treatment given to them at Mater Dei Hospital.
According to The Times, “the officer, who was escorting Mr Azzopardi, was treated in hospital for scratches on his forearms and chest injuries ‘which the doctor confirmed were exactly compatible with somebody trying to hold onto someone hanging from a wall’”.
Instead, the police records show that both Sergeant Lia and Constable Zammit were unable to speak and give any details to their own colleagues as they were evidently “under shock”.
The police records also contradict The Times report on another count: that the officers escorting him were about to search Azzopardi’s car just before the incident.
“The sources explained that on April 9 the police needed to search Mr Azzopardi's car,” The Times reported. “As they were crossing what is known as the CID yard, the officers realised that the victim’s wife was waiting in the reception area of the CID. ‘In a bid to avoid a confrontation, one of the officers went to address his wife. Another policeman went to the back with Mr Azzopardi, while his wife was admitted to the offices,’ the sources said.”
In contrast, police records show that Azzopardi was being escorted to the Crime Office section to have his fingerprints and photos taken. Again, the records show no evidence of what was told to The Times on 1 May with regards to Azzopardi’s car and wife.
The police registry makes no mention of the claim – also reported in The Times – that Azzopardi was admitted twice to hospital complaining of chest pains between 8 and 9 April, before he allegedly jumped off the wall.
Meanwhile MaltaToday Midweek of last Wednesday revealed how Sergeant Lia had duped the public, the government and the police force into believing he had saved a drowning woman 10 years ago by jumping into the sea when in fact he had never even touched water.
Lia was then a 23-year-old police constable and was awarded a gold medal for bravery after he reported himself to have jumped into the sea to save 54-year-old Mary Farrugia from Sliema as she was drowning near Qui Si Sana at around 5.15am in December 1997.
His alleged heroic act was widely reported in the press, with journalists taking his word about his selfless deed and reporting how he braved the stormy seas to rescue Farrugia, who according to the police statements was some 15 metres off shore.
Also according to the official version, Lia went on site together with Sliema Duty Sergeant Carmel Pace – who later transpired did not even go there.
Even the Office of the Prime Minister believed him, with former minister Joe Mizzi accompanied by disgraced police commissioner George Grech awarding him a gold medal for bravery.
By March 1998, however, Lia’s fabrication was proved beyond doubt when all the eyewitnesses recounted how he did not even touch the sea, let alone dive in to save the woman.
He was stripped of the decoration and a police investigation had concluded that “steps should be taken” against him for his false reports.
However, Lia, who is a member of the police corps since July 1992, was still eventually promoted to the rank of police sergeant.
It is sill unclear whether Lia himself is the officer who allegedly suffered scratches on his forearms and chest.

kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt