Matthew Xuereb
Taxpayers to pay bulk of damages
Maltese taxpayers will pay the bulk of €186,000 damages awarded to a former prison guard who was tortured by two police officers in 1982.
The two police officers who beat and terrorised former prison warder Anthony Mifsud together their chief, disgraced Police Commissioner Lawrence Pullicino, had their portion of the compensation capped at €25,000 by a Constitutional Court, yesterday.
The share owed by the Police Commissioner, who represents the state, was raised from about €46, 500 to just over €161,000. Moreover, when dealing with how the court fees were meant to be paid, the Constitutional Court ordered Mr Mifsud to pay 20 per cent for "expecting more compensation than he was really entitled to by law".
The first court had ordered the former police officers and the state to pay the fees themselves but now Mr Mifsud will have to share in the bill. Mr Mifsud was in his 20s when the beatings took place. He had been arrested, tortured and wrongfully charged with corruption and complicity after the notorious escape of two prisoners: Louis Bartolo and Ahmed Khalil Habib.
He had "confessed" his involvement while being interrogated at gunpoint at the police depot in June 1982. After three years in prison awaiting trial, a substantial part of which he spent in solitary confinement, he was found not guilty in a trial by jury.
Eventually, Mr Mifsud filed a compensation suit against his assailants -former Police Inspector Joseph Psaila, former Police Superintendent Carmelo Bonello, Dr Pullicino and the present Police Commissioner on behalf of the state.
Mr Mifsud claimed that his fundamental human right to freedom from degrading and inhuman treatment had been violated.
The First Hall of the Civil Court last October out compensation at €186,350 and ordered all four to pay the sum equally between them.
The two police officers were held responsible for beating Mr Mifsud and Dr Pullicino was held responsible for failing to stop the torture.
Mr Mifsud appealed the judgment asking the court to increase the compensation. He demanded €1.16 million.
Dr Pullicino, Mr Psaila and Mr Bonello appealed too on various counts, asking the court to find them not responsible for the case and to reduce the compensation they were being forced to pay.
Dr Pullicino defended himself by pointing out that he had not been involved in the case and that he had been overseas when Mr Mifsud was arrested. Nor had he participated in Mr Mifsud's interrogation.
The court dismissed the pleas, insisting that, although the former Police Commissioner was overseas when Mr Mifsud was arrested, he had returned while Mr Mifsud was still under arrest and had not taken any action to release him within 48 hours. Moreover, while Dr Pullicino had not participated in the interrogation, it had been his duty at the time to make sure that no such violations of the Constitution took place.
The Constitutional Court, pres-ided over by Acting Chief Justice Joseph D. Camilleri, Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia and Mr Justice Tonio Mallia, yesterday upheld the claims by the former police officers on how the compensation was to be paid.
The court ordered the Police Commissioner - the only party not to appeal the compensation judgment - to pay the whole amount, less €25,000 while it capped compensation the officers should pay at €25,000.
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23 Comments
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Karl Zarb
Sep 20th 2009, 11:52
Why are you all so surprised? Think a bit......................one of the mentioned ex police officers for sure, was given a promotion as soon as the PN was elected to Government in 1987! Maybe a sign of gratitude for his services? And maybe that gratitude is still valid?
Well.............food for thought!
Once, a prominent politician stated: "Il-gustizzja mhux trid issir imma trid tidher li qeghda ssir".................. tell it to Anthony Mifsud!
philip pace
Sep 20th 2009, 09:02
Regardless of what has been written re the taxes, one should note that for any act of such grievance, the payment for compensation always comes out from the taxes in any country in the world. So one can do nothing about it.
An act like this can happen under any one in power.
The most vulgar and obscene thing about this is that it has been taken into a political perspective and that is morally wrong.
A case like this, since I know Mr.Mifsud personally had nothing to do with politics. It has to do about people who wore a uniform and abused the same power that that uniform has given them.
It is a very evil thing what these guilty people have done to Mr.Mifsud as they have ruined his life for ever.
There was no politics involved in this as I remember the testimony given by Mr.Bartolo on Xarabank (?).
But the most evil act that has been committed was that it took more than 25 years to settle and the most perverse decision that has been taken by the Maltese Court that Mr.Mifsud has to pay that obscene percentage back to the Law Courts.
What justice, eh?
P Debono
Sep 19th 2009, 19:31
What a disgrace.
If this is what we call justice, then I don't want anything to do with it. Yet another failure from the Maltese Law Courts.
P Muscat
Sep 19th 2009, 18:52
If my memory serves me right, two of the police officials (not Pullicino) mentioned here were even granted a promotion or two under the early years of PN government.
Correct??
Albert Farrugia
Sep 19th 2009, 17:45
@c.camilleri
It is the PN which should hide its face in shame because of this case.....after politically instrumentalising it for 30 years...the human victim got Lm81,000 compensation....and after having to ram his way through the courts.....and by these same courts humiliating him by penalising him because "he expected more".
A. E. Abela
Sep 19th 2009, 17:15
@ A. E. Abela......
dealt not death. Excuse my spelling mistake.
Thanks
c. camilleri
Sep 19th 2009, 17:15
Labour diehards want us to forget the past. But how can we do that when skeletons of labour's dirty past keeping coming out. It is a pity that unlike other countries those political responsible are not held accountable and instead the burden is shifted to the people.
c. camilleri
Sep 19th 2009, 16:58
@ collette farrugia bennette. The time for protesting should have been 27 yrs ago not now. But at that time with few exceptions everyone was hibernating.
M. Catania
Sep 19th 2009, 16:09
Viva is-Socaljizmu tas-snin tmenin!!!!!!
Colette Farrugia Bennett
Sep 19th 2009, 15:52
I pay taxes for the betterment of my country, like so many other persons working legally in Malta. I refuse to pay my taxes so that they are used to compensate someone who rightly and justly should receive the compensation, but it should be the responsibility of the guilty assailant, and not the tax paying herd. Don't you all think it's time to start protesting? How long shall we be the rag dolls of our mindless political leaders?
A. E. Abela
Sep 19th 2009, 15:42
We only have one life to live.
EUR186,000 (minus the 20% court expenses plus tax) or any amount of money, can never make up for the torture, humiliation and the ruining of, one could say, a whole life time of an innocent person and his family.
Using people as political scapegoats to this extreme should be death with harsher and more serious consequences. No wonder we hear of all these officials abusing their powerful positions, it seems they know that IF held accountable (very rarely), the law will be lenient on them and in most cases the taxpayer will be liable instead. No wonder everyone wants a job with the government!
Eric Camilleri
Sep 19th 2009, 15:27
@ Franco Farrugia
And ironically you are the one happy for and looking forward to have CCTV cameras at every corner of the country when you have no clue of who could be behind those cameras "today" or "tomorrow".
Erin Ciantar
Sep 19th 2009, 15:21
So €186,000 is the price of a ruined in Malta!!! Seems cheap to me. The victim should be entitled to loads more compensation. And the perpetrators should be the ones to pay it.
c. camilleri
Sep 19th 2009, 15:15
Why are the taxpayers burden with the bulk of the damages and not the person who was political responsible at that time. By the way did we ever heard of any calls for resignations? After so many denials about the labour's heinous years, slowly but surely the truth is being vindicated. Can we ever forget the past when many are still suffering the effects of labour's brutal policy. Once we forget the past we are bound to live through again.
J. Borg
Sep 19th 2009, 13:45
The Judiciary does it again....
the perpetrators pay 30%, whilst the TAXPAYER forks out 50%
If the then Commissioner is liable to 20%, it follows that at least the then Minister should cough up 25%, whereas the then Prime Minister pays another 25%
If the taxpayers are practically always being compelled to finance the abuses of those who where entrusted to serve the public - rather than giving a lesson on what personal responsibility entails - we will keep indirectly enticing abuse.
adrian aquilina
Sep 19th 2009, 13:30
its obvious that the maltese paliament needs to be taken apart and started as new..the ministers,laws and constitution we have are all out of date and useless..if no decent ministers can be found,and judging by maltese history it seems unlikely,then we may as well govern ourselves..the government forget they are the servants of the people..vat fraud 700 euro fine..give away a plastic bag 1000 euro fine...maltese politics is a joke along with our stupid laws and sentences
Robert Callus
Sep 19th 2009, 12:31
@Franco Farrugia
Definitely agree with you, not only so that we have more burden on our taxes. Also, or even more importantly is the fact that these people, if they know they will not pay (not only financially) for their deeds, but we do, there is no strong deterrent to keep them for doing such things.
About this case: Why the hell should Mr Misfud pay 20% for "expecting more compensation than he was really entitled to by law". This is disgusting. A mere 186,000 Euro (25 years later!) for ruining an innocent person's life is seen as TOO MUCH! Justice, yes, of course.
victor pulis
Sep 19th 2009, 12:31
crime doesn't pay....for the innocent!
Lawrence Bonello
Sep 19th 2009, 11:32
As the Italians put it "sopra corna, bastonate!"
We continue to pay for the misdeeds of those who were (and are) in power.
Albert Farrugia
Sep 19th 2009, 11:23
Shame on the State! So Mr Mifsud get the miserly sum of Lm81,000....after having his life ruined.....and he has to pay back 20 per cent of the court fees. SHAME! This poor guy, whose case was instrumentalised by the Nationalists till the last drop, had to wait almost 30 years for such a miserly compenation and shameful court decision. Yet another confirmation how the common citzen is powerless even in a so called democratic state.
Anthony Falzon
Sep 19th 2009, 11:21
So Mr.Mifsud is awarded a sum of money by the courts, but the court of appeal wants him to pay himself 20% of that sum??????? Is this a first in our courts, what a joke.
Francesca Abela
Sep 19th 2009, 11:05
Why should taxpayers pay the bulk of the damages ? In my opinion the guilty ones should be made to pay all.
Franco Farrugia
Sep 19th 2009, 10:53
I have a dream. In this dream that I have, in Malta, people holding public office, even if they are heads of Governments, will be held PERSONALLY LIABLE to damages incurred with actions that they commit, and not the State, that is, us, the tax-payers. This applies to all kinds of misdemeanours, including the siting of a power-station. This sentence reminds one of dark times and it is shameful that the same people who suffered during these years, the law-abiding people, are now made to pay for the sins of others.