Former prison warder Anthony Mifsud was today awarded €186,349 in compensation after a court found that his human rights were violated by the police when he was beaten in a police cell.

The case goes back to 1982 when Mr Mifsud, then in his twenties, was arrested and questioned by the police following the escape of two prisoners - Louis Bartolo and Ahmed Khalil Habib - from the civil prisons.

He had subsequently been accused of corruption and complicity in the escape, but was acquitted after having been kept in jail for three years under preventive arrest.

Mr Mifsud had claimed that during his arrest, before being taken to court, he was tortured by (then) Superintendent Carmelo Bonello and Superintendent Joe Psaila, among others. He claimed he was repeatedly beaten and kicked to the extent that he started coughing up blood and could not eat.

He said the officers also put a gun to his head and threatened him unless he signed a confession.

The court found that the police officers had violated Mr Mifsud's fundamental rights not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. It ordered the Police Commissioner, former Police Commissioner Laurence Pullicino and former Supts Bonello and Psaila to pay total compensation of €186,349