Updated 4.20pm - Adds reaction by Liam Debono's lawyer - The Police Officers' Union and the Malta Police Association insisted on Thursday that a 'solidarity walk' which they jointly organised in Valletta in May was in support of the police as a whole and not any particular case.

The event was held just four days after a traffic policeman was critically injured in a hit-and-run incident in Luqa on May 15, a case which shocked the country. Those present for the solidarity walk included President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

Lawyers representing Liam Debono, the teenager accused of the hit-and-run, said in a judicial protest on Wednesday that the President's presence had prejudiced the case. 

READ: Liam Debono's lawyers cry foul over President's presence at solidarity march

Magistrate Joe Mifsud, who is presiding the compilation of evidence against Debono, said on Tuesday that had he not been a member of the judiciary, he too would have attended.

The two police groups pointed out that in their statement announcing the May 19 event they had said that this was to support the police as a whole.

In a reaction, Franco Debono, one of the lawyers representing Liam Debono, said that whilst one appreciated and acknowledged the right of the police to organise such an event, people’s intelligence should also be respected.

"It is very clear to all that the protest took place a mere four days after the Liam Debono case and that the two events are so intimately and intrinsically connected that it is very clear that no protest would have taken place had the Liam Debono incident not occurred," he said.