The Justice and Home Affairs Ministry is awaiting the outcome of an independent inquiry into the death of Nicholas Azzopardi – who allegedly died from injuries sustained under interrogation at the Police Headquarters – before enacting a six-year-old amendment to allow detainees access to a lawyer while in custody.
Azzopardi, 38 from Floriana, died in Mater Dei Hospital on 22 April, two hours after claiming to have been severely beaten while under arrest at the Floriana depot between 8 and 9 April.
His deathbed revelations were recorded on film by his family, and subsequently made public by MaltaToday. However, the police claim that Azzopardi sustained his injuries after falling from a bastion in an attempt to escape.
The incident is currently the subject of two separate inquiries: one conducted by duty magistrate Antonio Vella, and an independent inquest entrusted to retired judge Albert Manché by Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.
The Manché inquiry is now being cited as the chief reason why the Justice Ministry has to date failed to implement an amendment to allow persons in custody the right to speak to a lawyer, six years after the law was ostensibly changed.
In 2002, parliament unanimously approved a number of revisions to the Act governing arrest and detention procedures. Amendment 355AT(1) provides that “a person arrested... shall, if he so requests, be allowed as soon as practicable to consult privately with a lawyer or legal procurator, in person or by telephone, for a period not exceeding one hour.”
But this amendment cannot be enacted until the relevant legal notice is published in the Government Gazette: something the authorities have so far failed to do.
“Government had in the past year opted not to bring into force this particular article... due to the fact that in that law, numerous new radical provisions had been introduced within a brief period of time,” a ministry spokesman said yesterday when asked to account for the delay.
“In view of these wide-ranging changes it was felt that it was not the right and opportune moment to set this article in motion.”
Government’s apparent reluctance to enact this amendment was recently highlighted by Labour’s home affairs spokesman Gavin Gulia, who called on Minister Mifsud Bonnici to take an initiative which his predecessor, Tonio Borg – Justice Minister from October 1998 to March 2008 – had unaccountably postponed for six years.
But Borg’s replacement told this newspaper he prefers to wait until the Manché inquiry is concluded before publishing the legal notice.
“Rather than bringing into force this article as a knee-jerk reaction, as the Opposition spokesperson seems to be suggesting, Government today in this particular instance prefers to wait for the conclusions of the Manché public inquiry before addressing this issue,” the ministry official added.
At present there are no indications as to when this inquiry is expected to reach a conclusion.
Meanwhile, a representative of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) refused to confirm whether the matter was specifically raised during the visit of a delegation between 20 and 26 May.
“Are you talking about Amendment 355AT(1)?” CPT secretariat member Kristian Bartholin said yesterday over the phone. “I am sorry, but the Committee is bound by confidentiality when it comes to this kind of information, and it is up to the government of the country concerned to make the discussions public.”
Bartholin nonetheless confirmed that access to a lawyer while under arrest is considered a sine qua non in ascertaining that an individual’s rights are respected.
“It is a safeguard we would very much like to see in any country. Access to a lawyer, as well as the right to notify a third party that you have been arrested, is a fundamental safeguard against the possibility of abuse.”
The visit to Malta in May was the CPD’s sixth visit since 1990.

rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt