I cry with disgust and shame

The Anthony Mifsud saga and suffering makes me cry with disgust. Every time the dark, ghostly spectre of Labour's police state raises its ugly head it sends shivers running down my spine; for police state it was and the force was manned by some of the most ruthless, sadistic thugs around.

History has shown that these people would stop at nothing. They would torture their victims until they were killed or maimed, or, if very lucky, badly bruised.

Their weapons ranged from pistols to whips, from knuckle dusters to iron rods and, more imaginatively, from ceiling hooks with ropes/chains to toilet bowls.

They would beat their victims relentlessly, day and night, purposely depriving them of sleep and threatening them with harming their families until they produced a vegetable that would allow itself to be boiled or sliced, or whatever, at the thugs' whim and sign any declaration that was required of them - they would probably reach the state where they would even sign their death warrant to get away.

The surprise, or rather shame, was that, on many occasions and for many years, these disgusting tales barely leaked out. They would be restricted to close family and friends. Even the media, which is so erstwhile nowadays, often about trivialities, did not follow up or investigate much. Rarely were the courts aware or bother to investigate.

I mean, when the thugs triumphantly waived their signed confessions before a magistrate and the visibly beaten up vegetable was too terrified to say anything, a magistrate would ask what happened.

The thug's stock answer was that he fell down the stairs (those infamous CID stairs) and the matter stopped there. Of course, at the defence lawyer's request, a doctor's certificate was requested.

But, then, even defence lawyers somehow seemed to be less forceful on this matter than they would become in later years.

Those who were, mainly because they were opposition MPs, were banned by law from appearing in cases involving the government.

Being a lawyer myself, I remember very clearly the occasions when someone called a lawyer to say that he had been summoned to CID headquarters or a particular police station.

Our immediate advice was that, while that summons should be followed, the client must first go to a doctor and get a certificate testifying as to his good health and physical condition.

After all this was a visit to the guardians of the law. Others did not have the luxury of a summons but were just picked up from their home or place of work at all times of the day and night.

What did get worse, however, and raised awareness to new heights, was the alarming fact that the thugs were so used to getting away with everything that they became careless and often failed to cover their tracks or even provide plausible excuses and we got corpses being carried out of the police depot at night and detainees emerging with displaced shoulders, for example.

There was (and still is) the 48- hour rule, whereby a person cannot be detained for more than 48 hours. He has either to be charged or else released.

Besides the farcical practice of letting a detainee out after exactly 48 hours and detaining him for another 48 as soon as he got round the corner, there were cases where the 48- hour period was exceeded. In the case of a person who had no family or friends, let alone a lawyer, and of whose detention no one was aware, then there was serious danger of this happening.

I recall a case I was involved in some 25 years ago where this period was exceeded not by hours or days or weeks but by months. A young Welshman (a boy, really) who was vagabond was picked up from the street and taken to police HQ where he was detained for some three months before the British High Commission got wind of the matter. I was retained to deal with the case and immediately filed a writ for habeas corpus.

The case was set up for a hearing at 9.p.m., which timing for some reason was often the case. This terrified boy appeared accompanied by one of Mr Mifsud's thugs, who was head thug at the time, and charged with plotting to overthrow Dom Mintoff's government! I couldn't restrain a laugh in such tragic circumstances. We did a bit of plea bargaining and ended up admitting to the charges just so that this boy could get away. He was given a suspended sentence and sent home. I later learnt that he had committed suicide in his home country.

Incidentally, had criminal proceedings ever been instituted against Mr Mifsud's thugs? Of course, all is time-barred now. The problem is that most of these have got away with it.

But what is worse (shall we laugh again?) is that one of Anthony Mifsud's thugs was given a promotion by a Nationalist government shortly after its election in 1987! Perhaps Part Two another time.