Former police officer seeks damages

Former police superintendent Joseph Rizzo yesterday filed a constitutional application against the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General.

Rizzo claimed he had been discriminated against and he requested the court to provide him with a remedy.

He declared that he had joined the police force as a constable in 1962 and by 1983 had been promoted to the grade of superintendent. He had continued as superintendent until he resigned from the force in 2000.

The Tribunal for the Investigation of Injustices had concluded, in a ruling delivered in 1999, that he had been discriminated against between 1988 and 1990 when he had not been promoted to assistant police commissioner.

The tribunal had recommended that Rizzo be promoted to this grade with retroactive effect and that he be paid the salary commensurate with this grade, also with retroactive effect.

Both the commissioner and the Prime Minister had tried to impugn the ruling but the courts had ruled, last February, that the tribunal's decision was correct.

However, as Rizzo had resigned from the police force he could not now be promoted to the grade of assistant police commissioner, despite the proven discrimination against him.

He concluded his application by requesting the court to declare that the authorities had discriminated against him and that they had rendered the remedy awarded to him by the tribunal inaccessible.

Rizzo also requested the court to order the authorities to make good the damages he had sustained.