The man in charge of the Safi detention centre, Lieutenant Nicholas Camilleri, said he would have acted the same way as two of his subordinates who are charged with murder if faced with the same violent immigrant.

“When one escapes, you literally have to jump on them and use force to apprehend them,” he said.

Detention officers had nothing to defend themselves with except a pair of handcuffs and a torch, he added.

There were five to six officers for 195 immigrants living in one block, he said. Some 885 others lived in accommodation nearby.

Asked by defence lawyer Joseph Giglio how he would have gone about arresting a violent immigrant with no handcuffs, he said he would have acted the same and used considerable force.

Immigrants on the run obviously did not come quietly and force was required.

His testimony prompted defence lawyer Franco Debono to blame former justice and home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici for the situation. “What a perfect immigration policy Carm has left us,” he remarked sarcastically.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici was recently forced to resign after a no-confidence motion in Parliament, with Dr Debono voting with the opposition.

Dr Debono said that it was unbelievable how soldiers were made to work 24-hour shifts and not given anything to defend themselves with when dealing with some 200 immigrants.

In other testimony, detention officer Dominic Seguna said working with immigrants was a hard job and that they were “ungrateful”.

He likened them to “monkeys” behind a fence as they protested against the victim being put back in the centre, as he was a trouble maker. He described Mr Kamara as a nuisance and acting like a mad man before he was taken to Floriana health centre.