By offering an amnesty to informants in the Nicholas Azzopardi case, the Government was not doubting the outcome of the two inquiries held but was simply seeking another way to give the family peace of mind, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.

Dr Gonzi said the inquiries “spoke for themselves” but despite this, “there were people who were still casting doubts”.

He said the purpose of offering an amnesty was to encourage anyone with information to come forward because the Government understood that the family expected to have its questions answered.

The bastion behind the police headquarters in Floriana. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

“The family of the deceased person deserve to have certainty as far as humanly possible and they would be satisfied that the justice system has given them all it could to put their minds at rest,” he said.

Dr Gonzi said that whether all their questions would be answered did not depend on him, on the Government or the authorities “but at least we would have taken all the measures possible to ensure justice is done”.

Mr Azzopardi fell off a bastion behind the police headquarters in Floriana four years ago while he was in police custody.

He died a few days after the fall but not before claiming from his hospital bed that he had been beaten up and thrown over the wall by police officers who were questioning him on allegations that he sexually abused his seven-year-old daughter.

The police have repeatedly denied the claims, insisting Mr Azzopardi jumped. Subsequent inquiries exonerated them.

However, earlier this year the magisterial inquiry was reopened at the Police Commissioner’s request after one of Mr Azzopardi’s police escorts was accused of theft.

On Wednesday, Dr Gonzi told Parliament that another 12 people had fallen or jumped off the same bastion wall between 2002 and 2011. All survived, with Mr Azzopardi the only fatality.

Questioned about why no action had been taken to make the bastion wall safe, Dr Gonzi said measures had been taken, including the installation of CCTV cameras.

He said inquiries had been conducted on almost all cases and several measures taken. He did not specify what these were but he said more were taken following Mr Azzopardi’s case.

“In the past, we have had cases of irregular migrants who got away and jumped off that wall and we have to ensure that we take the appropriate decisions so that similar cases do not happen again.”