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.