Anna Mallia | Wednesday, 15 October 2008

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Shame!

So the Minister of Justice said that both the magisterial inquiry and the internal investigation on the death of Nicholas Azzopardi whilst in police custody found no wrongdoing with the Police. And the Minister is at peace with himself and is finding comfort in these reports notwithstanding that the media has highlighted the flaws that exist in the investigation.
In last Sunday’s programme Wara l-Kaz on One TV, journalist Jean Paul Mifsud asked him to explain certain flaws in the reports but the minister remained adamant and persisted that there is nothing further to discuss.
Mifsud asked him to explain why the police failed to notify him at once, and why it did so only after one week since Azzopardi’s death; Mifsud asked him to explain why the architect appointed by the Court omitted to include the camera installed on the site of the incident; Mifsud asked him to explain why the recordings of that camera were not presented in court. But for the minister there is nothing else to discuss and this case is closed.
If only the minister’s father was still in office. We all remember the fervour he and his colleagues showed in the death of Nardu Debono whilst in police custody. Mr Debono also died whilst in police custody and the conclusions were that he escaped police custody and died whilst he was not in their custody. At least that was the version that the party in government gave us.
But the Minister of Justice’s father and his colleagues did not stop there and persisted with the matter so that when their party was in power, they opened the investigation again and this time the courts ruled that the murder was the responsibility of the police and the then Commissioner of Police Lawrence Pullicino was convicted and sent to jail.
But that was Nardu Debono and his incident, whilst under police custody, occurred under Labour. This time under the minister’s government, we have another death occurring whilst in police custody and the minister tends to ignore that a death is a death whether it occurs during the Nationalist or Labour administrations. This time the minister is happy with what he has got and he is at peace.
Obviously we are not. We are not happy with this state of affairs because we know that he knows what police custody means, and that the responsibility of the police stops when they release the person from custody. The minister is a lawyer and he knows the law and the judgements which define police custody.
We are not happy because the Attorney General has not scrapped the conclusions of the inquiring magistrate, as he has every right to do, and referred them back to the magistrate to investigate further. I worked at that office for 10 years and I know the work involved in the magisterial inquiries, and how the Attorney General referred back certain reports to the magistrate with specific instructions to hear this again or that witness or court expert. The Attorney General knows of these flaws, if not from the police then from the media, and it is his responsibility to ensure that these flaws are investigated.
It is true that nowadays the role of the Attorney General is also that of the Government’s chief legal advisor, and the police’s legal advisor, and he is also chairman of government commissions, and it is therefore not easy for us to decipher when the person is taking decisions as the Attorney General (whose client is the Constitution of Malta) and when he is taking these decisions on behalf of his client the government of Malta.
I do not know what hat he was wearing when he decided to be happy like the minister with the conclusions of the inquiring magistrate. But he is now in time to refer back the report to the magistrate and ask him to provide answers to the flaws that the media has highlighted, one of them being the inaccuracy of the site plan submitted by the court appointed expert.
In this way the public will be given the assurance that everything is above board, and that this case is being given the same attention that cases like Nardu Debono’s and Richard Cachia Caruana’s attempted assassination were given.
We all remember the way the magisterial inquiry on the allegations against the former Commissioner of Police was conducted. In that inquiry, history was made in that the person investigated was allowed to be defended by his lawyer. I do not remember any other case where such legal assistance was allowed. The Attorney General did not object to that and neither did he object when the inquiry concluded that there was no case against the former Commissioner.
Police custody is police custody, and if there is a problem with the way that police custody is being handled then it is not fair to say that ‘I have two reports each saying that there is no wrongdoing by the police’ and so, I am happy with that. The minister knows and the police know and the judiciary knows and the lawyers know, that any person in police custody is in the hands of the police, and it is the responsibility of the police to release him in the same condition that he went into custody.
These two reports have now caused a stir and the public is now asking whether the responsibility of the police has shifted when they have a person in custody. We all know that even when the interrogating officer goes home and leaves the person in custody overnight locked in the chip, that person is still under his responsibility.
So was Nardu Debono when the police alleged that he escaped from police custody and so was Azzopardi when the police alleged that he threw himself from the bastions.
There is only one thing for the family of Azzopardi: either to pursue the matter like the Nationalists and the family of Nardu Debono did when he was killed, or else to sue for damages so that somebody can be brought to account for what happened to their relative. I know that money will not bring their loved one back. But it will definitely bring to book those who were responsible for his safety.
Suing for damages is the only remedy they have without the need to beg our politicians to put pressure on the government to investigate further how Azzopardi died in police custody.
We thought that the days of Nardu Debono were over, but after Azzopardi’s case, we are not so sure anymore!

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