Former prison warder Anthony Mifsud yesterday appealed the judgment in which he had been awarded €186,349.87 for being tortured by the police 26 years ago, saying the sum was "insignificant".

He said he had expected €1,165,000, particularly after waiting so long for it.

Mr Mifsud cited a well-known case in which former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff was awarded €838,574 in compensation after the government, in 1989, decided to build a power station in Delimara close to his villa. He was awarded compensation for violation of his property rights, even though Mr Mintoff had retained ownership of the property.

Mr Mifsud added that Mr Mintoff's case did not involve torture but concerned only the enjoyment of his property and that when violations of property rights were discovered to have taken place, the courts granted realistic compensation which reflected the value of the deprivation of the land.

In 1982, Mr Mifsud was detained unlawfully and mercilessly tortured while in police custody. He was wrongfully charged with corruption and complicity in the escape from prison of Louis Bartolo and Ahmed Khalil Habib.

Mr Mifsud was held under preventative arrest for more than 100 hours during which he released a "confession" at gun-point.

He was found not guilty in a trial by jury but spent three years in prison awaiting trial, a substantial part of which he spent in solitary confinement.

On August 30, the two officers who had beaten Mr Mifsud, Joseph Psaila and Carmelo Bonello, were ordered to pay €186,349, along with disgraced former Police Commissioner Lawrence Pullicino, who was held responsible for failing to stop the torture. Dr Pullicino said that he would appeal the decision because of a number of inconsistencies.

In his appeal, Mr Mifsud said that he had expected to be awarded €1,165,000 in compensation, for he had been subjected to torture which had left him suffering from grievous mental problems and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mr Mifsud declared that he agreed with the first court's judgment that his fundamental human rights had been violated but thought he had not been adequately compensated for these violations.

Had he continued to work as a prison warden or in any other job earning a minimum wage in the period between June 1982 and June of this year, he would have earned far more than the sum awarded by the first court. Consequently, he had not been compensated for the torture he had suffered which added to his mental anguish.

Lawyer Tonio Azzopardi acted for Mr Mifsud.