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PL Home Affairs spokesman Michael Falzon said today that the government had leased the CPD fire-fighting training facility in Hal Far to a private company and the department now did not have a place of its own for fire-fighting training.

The government denied the claim later in the evening.

He asked who took this ‘irresponsible’ decision and whether the CPD was consulted. Would the CPD now have to rent use of the facility from the private sector?

Speaking at a press conference, he also referred to the police force and said a number of negative stories were coming out about the policeman who resigned from the police force after being accused of stealing €30,000 in cash from police HQ and after he had been implicated in the Nicholas Azzopardi case. The officer was one of the policemen who had been escorting Azzopardi shortly before he plunged to his death from a wall behind headquarters.

The same policeman had also had a medal of honour withdrawn after the police found that he had lied about having rescued a woman from drowning.

Dr Falzon said action should have been taken before so many cases developed, involving the same person.

He said the PL did not have an official position over whether a second inquiry should have been held on the Azzopardi case, on whether the same magistrate should lead the second inquiry. His personal opinion was that it would have been better had a different Magistrate headed it.

He also referred to two court cases involving a suspended police inspector. The inspector was first accused of assaulting two teenagers in Paceville. He was later also accused of threatening to kill a police inspector and threatening the police commissioner.

Dr Falzon said he was surprised how the inspector was granted bail when he had allegedly breached previous bail conditions.

In the cases involving these two officers, Dr Falzon said the police force should have a psychological department to assess policemen possibly noticing problems before they developed.

POLICE TRADE UNION

On the calls for a police trade union, Dr Falzon said eight foreign police association had written to Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici criticising his proposals. He reiterated that the PL would give the members of the police, the AFM and CPD the right to join a trade union.

On the Għar Hasan shooting last Friday, Dr Falzon questioned whether there were policies on how policemen should act in such cases, and whether they were regularly updated.

Regarding the right for people under interrogation to consult a lawyer, he questioned whether this was enough under international standards and whether the time had come to record interrogations and to have lawyers present during interrogations.

THE PRISONS

On the situation at the prisons – Dr Falzon insisted these were the prisons not a correctional facility – he noted that the budget for training and education of prisoners had gone down to €40,000 from €50,000 or €66 per prisoner.

He claimed that a former manager at the prisons had retired but had been awarded a consultancy job for 30 hours a week with a remuneration of €20,000.

GOVERNMENT'S REPLY

In a statement, the government denied that the CPD transferred land or entered into a contract to transfer land. It never involved itself in any transaction of the type.

On the case of Nicholas Azzopardi and of a former member of the police force who had been given a medal by a Labour administration, the Home Affairs Ministry said the opposition knew that the steps which should have been taken were taken, as it also knew that in the case of the inspector mentioned, the judgements were not given by the ministry but by the courts.

On the police union proposal, the minister said his ministry moved a proposal to Parliament and a bill was published in the Government Gazette last November.

The ministry said it was not true that the fund for educational programmes at the Corradino Correctional Facility was being reduced drastically. On the contrary, the funds for the year increased to €45,000.

On the implementation of the Restorative Justice Act, which came into effect in January, although some officials, such as the parole clerk, were not yet appointed, the evaluation process of applications had already been embarked upon.

Applications ahd to be assessed by several bodies to ensure that the right decisions were taken and the opposition had to understand that hundreds of applications were received when he process started and these all had to be evaluated.