Former police commissioner Peter Paul Zammit stands by his decision to drop charges against a man who allegedly assaulted officers despite being slammed by an inquiry.

Mr Zammit insisted yesterday he had a legal obligation to stop the case against “an innocent man” because the charges did not tally with what really happened inside the Żabbar police station.

The case goes back to 2013 when Josmar Agius walked into the police station and created a ruckus over the way duty officers had treated his daughter when reporting a stolen mobile phone.

An inquiry concluded there was no justification for the withdrawal of the charges against Mr Agius and this appeared to be a unilateral decision by Mr Zammit. Mr Agius was a former client of Mr Zammit when he still worked in private legal practice.

But Mr Zammit told Times of Malta he was in duty bound to take the decision. “I would have been breaking the law had I left manifestly unfounded charges to go ahead.”

‘Charges said man assaulted officers’

He said the initial report filed by the police sergeant via the central computer system, known as Pirs, alleged that the man had caused “a commotion and threatened to report the police officers” to their superiors.

“However, the formal charge sheet drawn up by the same police sergeant alleged that the man had assaulted the police officers,” Mr Zammit said. Thus, it would have been unfair to accuse a man of something he never did, he added, insisting that case law also showed that telling an officer he would be reported to his superiors could not be perceived to be a threat.

Why should I resign?

Mr Zammit admitted his mistake of not having justified the decision in the police file but denied his action was a result of Mr Agius being a former client.

Asked if he should have refrained from taking the decision himself or on his own, Mr Zammit said he did not want to pass the buck.

He was critical of the inquiry board for not hearing what Mr Agius, his daughter and two civilian witnesses present at the police station had to say.

When it was put to him that he had not spoken to witnesses either when deciding to drop the charges, Mr Zammit said he did not have to. “My job was to substantiate the charges issued by the police… the Pirs report, written soon after the incident when details were still fresh, and the charge sheet differed in substance,” he said.

Asked whether the inquiry conclusions should lead to his resignation from his position as security coordinator for major events, Mr Zammit replied: “Why should I?”

Zammit will keep post - PM

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday he would not ask the former police commissioner to relinquish his role as security coordinator.

As security coordinator for national events, he will also be handling arrangements for the Commonwealth summit to be held in Malta later this year.

Speaking in Qatar, Dr Muscat said Mr Zammit was doing a good job in his role and he had faith in him.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil accused the Prime Minister of “bad judgement” and of having a “crooked yardstick”.

“The Prime Minister chooses people, they perform badly and he then assigns them to another position, even if they make mistakes,” Dr Busuttil said.

Additional reporting by Ariadne Massa.