(Adds statement by Malta Police Association)

A man who accused the police of beating him up in Paceville after they caught him smoking inside a bar this afternoon admitted to lying under oath and to accusing the police of something he knew they had not done. 

The investigation had started after his mother wrote an "anonymous" letter to Police Commissioner Michael Cassar claiming that her son had been given a "severe beating" by police officers in the early hours on New Year's Day.

But a magisterial inquiry appointed to look into her claims revealed that nothing of the sort had happened and that he had lied about the entire incident. On the contrary, the inquiry, by Magistrate Gabriella Vella, had found that it was the youth who assaulted the police on New Year's Eve. 

The man who had never been named before is Etienne Caruana, a 30-year-old from Iklin, appeared before Magistrate Ian Farrugia charged with resisting the police, assaulting them, refusing to give his details to the police officers, disobeying their orders, breaching the peace, lying under oath before a magistrate, falsely accusing the police of a crime and with smoking inside a pub. 

He pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him and was handed a two-year jail term suspended for four years. Furthermore, he was fined €1,200 and placed under a five-year general interdiction. Lawyers Vince Micallef and Jean Paul Sammut were defence counsel. 

The mother had claimed her son had been handcuffed, thrown into a van and “roughly manhandled”, ending up with bruised ribs and cuts to the head.

The letter, which had been copied to some media organisations, including Times of Malta, had asked for an investigation. 

The parent claimed in the letter that the young man was at Playground bar (which forms part of Sky Club Malta) when, at about 5am, a policeman approached him and demanded his particulars because he was smoking.

“Witnesses that I spoke to confirmed that he was not alone in this, as many of the clientele present were also smoking, but your officer picked on him as he was the worst for drink, the smallest and to make an example out of him.”

The letter claimed the officer threw the son into a van and gave him a “severe beating”.

“He sustained cuts and lacerations to the head, bruised ribs and muscles.”

The young man was then dumped into the street where his friends found him.

“So as to ensure absolute transparency and impartiality the case has been referred to the duty magistrate to investigate as it is being alleged that the victim suffered head injuries,” the spokesman had said in reply to questions sent by Times of Malta.

The magistrate had concluded that the man had lied to his mother and continued to sustain his lie when testifying under oath before her during the inquiry. 

In a statement this evening, the Malta Police Association said that the accused’s lies could have had major consequences for members of the force and put the police in a bad light in the past months.

It said that in the past years it had put pressure on MPs for the necessary legislative changes to increase fines to people attacking and threatening public officers to be made.