A soldier has been jailed for 18 months for tampering with evidence in connection with the brutal murder of a migrant in 2012.

A magistrate ruled that Lance Bombardier Gordon Pickard, 37, of Żabbar, had covered up for his colleagues, having seeing them kick Mamadou Kamara, 32, and having stopped one of them.

Magistrate Anthony Vella found that Mr Pickard had changed details of the crime against Mr Kamara, from Mali, who was certified dead in a Detention Service van outside the Paola health centre on the night of June 29, 2012.

A post-mortem examination revealed he had died due to severe blows to his lower abdominal area.

The court ruled that the soldiers had agreed on a version and had insisted with the police that Mr Kamara was resisting them. Magistrate Vella said Mr Pickard had not been charged with the incident leading to Mr Kamara’s death because he had done nothing to him. In fact, he had stopped another soldier from continuing to kick the migrant. He noted that Mr Pickard had denied agreeing on a version with anybody and insisted he had always told the truth but he was evasive when asked why he had changed his version of events.

Handing down judgment, Magistrate Vella said the three army officers had “staged” the hideous crime.

“The soldiers mentioned another two detention officers to try and shift the blame for what had happened. These soldiers, who are meant to protect the country’s security, chose to hide the evidence so that the truth about what led to the migrant’s death remains hidden,” the magistrate said.

“The court is reaching this conclusion because there is no other explanation on what they did,” he added.

Police Inspectors Keith Arnaud, Tony Cachia and Spiridione Zammit prosecuted.