Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in parliament this evening that former Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici more than two years ago had stopped the Detention Service from taking disciplinary action against officers found to have been negligent in a case which resulted in the death of a migrant.
Dr Muscat said an inquiry appointed by the former government had established the responsibility of a number of Detention Service Officers in the case leading to the death of Nigerian migrant Infeanyi Nworkoye in 2011. (He died after having been beaten upon his recapture after escaping from detention - see link below)
The head of the Detention Service, Lt Colonel Brian Gatt had wanted to take disciplinary action and even dismiss the officers after they even refused to give him a statement, but Dr Mifsud Bonnici told him not to take action, saying police investigations were still underway.
The Inquiry Report was not only never published, but it was not even handed to the then Commissioner of Police and the then Commander of the Army.
If this was not a cover-up, he did not know what it was, Dr Muscat said. The officers found responsible in that inquiry had only been taken to court last February, under this government.
Dr Muscat said that he had, as prime minister, acted promptly last Monday when he received the inquiry report on the shooting by the driver of then minister Manuel Mallia.
What would Dr Busuttil do tonight?
This, he said, was only his first test and he would be giving him a test once every month because the bar of accountability had been raised for everyone.
MIFSUD BONNICI REACTS
In a reaction, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that following the Nigerian man’s death in April 2011 he had appointed an internal inquiry headed by Martin Scicluna, and a Magisterial inquiry was also held.
He had immediately published the recommendations of the Scicluna inquiry, which were published in The Times of 19 November, 2011. The inquiry report was to be published in full once Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona concluded his inquiry.
Another report on timesofmalta.com (http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120705/local/Delayed-migrant-death-inquiry-is-quizzed.427183) showed how Dr Micallef Trigona was criticised by the Attorney General for not having concluded his inquiry into the Nigerian migrant’s death, thus holding up the publication of the Scicluna inquiry report.
Therefore, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said, it was not he who had held up publication of the inquiry report. Indeed, Dr Muscat too had not published that report today.
He had nothing to hide and he never told anyone not to do his duties, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.
He was sure that the inquiry report was sent to the head of the Detention Service, the Commissioner of Police and the AFM Commander.
‘I certainly cannot be accused of any cover-up,’ Dr Mifsud Bonnici insisted.
GOVERNMENT REPLIES
In a statement later, the government said Dr Mifsud Bonnici had not explained why he had stopped disciplinary action from being taken against the Detention Service officers mentioned in the inquiry. Dr Mifsud Bonnici had also confirmed that the inquiry report was not published by the former government.
OPPOSITION IN UNDUE PRESSURE ON INQUIRY JUDGES
Earlier in his address, Dr Muscat accused Opposition leader Simon Busuttil of having put undue pressure on the independent inquiry into the shooting by the former driver of then Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia.
Dr Muscat said that Dr Busuttil's criticism of the Board of Inquiry, composed of three retired judges, amounted to a shameful attack on the judiciary itself.
Dr Busuttil had tried to dissuade the former judges from getting involved in the inquiry and then had gone so far as to accuse them of being part of a cover-up.
This, Dr Muscat said, was an attack on the judiciary, one of the most important pillars of the state. Had it been a minister who launched such an attack, Dr Busuttil would have demanded his resignation.
Through his criticism Dr Busuttil had cast doubts on the decisions of those former judges even while they sat on the Bench. His attack was also one in a series of attacks on the institutions of the state.
Public confidence in the institutions of the state was currently his biggest concern in the wake of this sad case, Dr Muscat said.
His concern also applied to the police force. True, the lack of public confidence in the police force had not started now. Nor had it started in the past 18 months, but action was needed.
The people were worried over how telephone calls to the police had been handed to the PN, which broadcast them, while shamefully omitting a central point.
But also worrying to him, Dr Muscat, was a culture in the police force which saw officers protecting each other, when they should not be doing so. There were other problems, such as the fact that some officers were too close to criminals. True, the police argued they got information that way, but this issue had to be regulated. The latest case also showed how operational procedures were not observed. This too needed to be addressed.