The Home Affairs Ministry has confirmed that disgraced former police commissioner Lawrence Pullicino was invited to attend a reception last Christmas, but nobody would say who took the decision.

In 1993, Mr Pullicino was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of complicity in the death of a person while under police interrogation at the headquarters in 1980.

Times of Malta is informed that it was the present Police Commissioner, Lawrence Cutajar, who invited Mr Pulliicino to attend the reception, held at the police headquarters in Floriana. Sources close to the police said this was the first time since Mr Pullicino walked out of prison in 2000 that he had been invited to a police event.

It is obscene that the former police boss, who was found guilty of assisting in the murder of a person inside the police headquarters, should return to the same building as a guest of the present Police Commissioner

The minister, Carmelo Abela, confirmed that Mr Pullicino had been invited to the Christmas drinks when replying to a parliamentary question tabled by Nationalist deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami.

When asked whether he felt it was opportune for the police to issue an invitation to someone who had brought the police force into disrepute, Mr Abela replied that Mr Pullicino had paid for his deeds.

However, to some senior police officers and former high-ranking personnel attending the party, the invitation was “disgusting”.

“It is obscene that the former police boss, who was found guilty of assisting in the murder of a person inside the police headquarters, should return to the same building as a guest of the present Police Commissioner,” one senior officer said.

Asked to say who had issued the invitation, a ministry spokesman directed this newspaper to the Police Commissioner. On his part, a spokesman for the Police Commissioner said there was nothing to add to what the minster had said in Parliament.

Pullicino walking out of prison in August 2000.

Mr Pullicino was sentenced to prison in March 1993 in connection with the violent death of Nardu Debono, who died at the police headquarters as a result of blows he received under interrogation in connection with the planting of a bomb outside Mr Pullicino’s home in Luqa.

The former police head was also found guilty of having given false evidence before the magistrate investigating Debono’s death, but no punishment could be imposed because the action was time-barred.

Mr Debono’s body had been found under a bridge at Qormi, and the police claimed he had escaped. During the nine-week trial, it emerged that Mr Debono’s dead body had been placed under the bridge by members of the police force.

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com