Victim's father queries rescue attempt claim

The father of a man the police are saying they tried to stop from "jumping off" the bastions during interrogation wondered yesterday why such a vital piece of information was not communicated to the family immediately.

The Times reported police sources yesterday saying that an officer escorting Nicholas Azzopardi - who alleged on his deathbed that he had been beaten brutally and thrown off the bastions by the police when in their custody - was treated in hospital for scratches on his forearms and chest injuries as a result of his trying to hold the 38-year-old from jumping over the bastions at the back of the police headquarters.

The father of two died in hospital on April 22 after surviving from his three-storey fall 14 days earlier.

"If this is true, I'd like to know the name and surname of this officer to thank him personally for trying to save my son," Joe Azzopardi said sarcastically before going on to raise doubts about this latest development.

Before dying, Mr Azzopardi told his family, his lawyer and the magistrate conducting an inquiry into his fall, that he had been beaten and thrown off the bastions by the police.

He said he had been taunted and beaten in the lock-up by two policemen. He admitted that he retaliated against one of the interrogators, crushing him against the lock-up's metal door. In reaction, an officer, possibly trained in martial arts, flung a side kick, breaking four ribs and puncturing his lung. After that, the deceased had told the family he lost consciousness and only came to in hospital 10 days later.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Azzopardi's brother, Reno, highlighted the fact that when he was first called in by the police to be told about the incident, Police Inspector Louise Calleja, "in a trembling voice", had told him that his brother had fallen off the bastions after escaping police custody, "hurting a policeman" in the process.

This detail, he stressed, corroborates his brother's admission to having hurt one of his interrogators.

The detail that a policeman had tried to "save" Mr Azzopardi was never mentioned before by the police, officially or otherwise.

In a statement released on April 9, the police said Mr Azzopardi had managed to escape from the policeman escorting him and tried to run away by jumping from a height. "We have been raising questions about this injured policeman from the start. Why was he never mentioned," Joe Azzopardi asked when contacted for his comments yesterday.

Similarly, Toni Abela, the lawyer representing the family, said he hoped the reported information is true and the abuse suspected is unfounded.

However, he preferred to wait for the outcome of the magisterial inquiry and, especially, the autopsy results before commenting any further.

"The timing of the information is not right. When I read the report (on The Times) I found myself asking: Why didn't this come out earlier?"

Officially, the police have chosen not to comment until the inquiry is over. However, police sources have consistently insisted that "no policeman was ever beaten by Nicholas".

Besides the magisterial inquiry, which began on the day of the fall on April 9, the government on Tuesday ordered another investigation led by retired Judge Albert Manchè to look into the alleged police beatings.

The original inquiry might take another week and it seemed unlikely to be concluded by the end of the week as the government was initially expecting, sources said yesterday.