The fourth inquiry into the case of Nicholas Azzopardi, who died in 2008 while in police custody, has ruled out that crucial CCTV footage of the incident was tampered with.
The footage is intact and no part was eliminated or erased
Last November, the Attorney General referred the controversial case back to Magistrate Anthony Vella asking him to examine whether the “persistent allegations about the alleged doctoring of CCTV footage” were justified.
The inquiry, concluded three weeks ago after witnesses’ testimony was heard, unearthed “no new facts”.
Footage from police headquarters, collected as evidence during the investigation, was “never meddled with, as alleged by some sections of the media”.
“The footage is intact and no part was eliminated or erased,” Magistrate Vella said in his report seen by The Sunday Times of Malta.
He concluded in his procés-verbal that he would not depart from the conclusions of his 2008 investigation: that Mr Azzopardi, 38, was never assaulted by police and that wounds he sustained were compatible with a fall from height, not the result of any blows.
The death of Mr Azzopardi has been hanging like a cloud over the police for the past five years with fresh allegations resurfacing as his family attempt to seek explanations and find closure.
The case courted controversy when on his deathbed Mr Azzopardi claimed police beat him and threw him off a bastion wall while in custody facing allegations that he had abused his seven-year-old daughter.
Subsequent inquiries failed to unearth any wrongdoing by police but the family have always alleged foul play. In a bid to appease the family, then Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi last year even offered an amnesty to anyone who was aware of any abuse that may have taken place, but nobody came forward.
The Azzopardi family have always contested Magistrate Vella re-examining the case, insisting any fresh investigations must be completely independent to be of any value.
The family proceeded to do their own research and appointed a team of professionals and lawyers to dig deeper into what happened.
This team highlighted discrepancies in the testimony of witnesses and claimed the CCTV footage had been tampered with; findings that were serialised in the newspaper Malta Today.
In the light of this information, the Attorney General asked the inquiring magistrate to “grant an opportunity to those making allegations, whether directly or by innuendo, to the effect that the CCTV footage was manipulated, to explain the basis of their allegations to the inquiring magistrate”.
The witnesses Magistrate Vella interviewed were Inspector Paul Caruana, Malta Today journalists Raphael Vassallo and Jurgen Balzan, as well as Education Minister Evarist Bartolo.
Mr Bartolo has even co-authored a book with Mr Azzopardi’s brother, Reno, on the case. It includes previously unpublished photographic evidence of a ‘secret’ tunnel connecting the Floriana police headquarters with the ditch where Mr Azzopardi was found, unconscious and badly injured, after falling off the bastions.
The book explains that the existence of this tunnel may also clarify discrepancies between the claims Mr Azzopardi made on his deathbed and the police version.
In the meantime, the case is unlikely to leave the headlines anytime soon, with the family and Mr Azzopardi’s wife Claudette locked in a legal blame game over the man’s death.