The girlfriend of a man who was allegedly beaten by RIU officers in Mġarr in May told a court how she witnessed him being punched and kicked and could not understand why.

Jasione Vassallo took the witness stand, before Magistrate Carol Peralta, in the compilation of evidence against RIU officers Mark Tonna and David Camilleri who are pleading not guilty to beating Jean Paul Aquilina on May 3 at about 1am.

Mr Aquilina is undergoing separate court proceeding where he is pleading not guilty to assaulting the two officers.

Ms Vassallo said that, that evening, they were at a family barbecue in Mġarr and, at about 1am, she and Mr Aquilina left. A police car signalled to them to stop and they pulled over near a bus stop.

The officers told Mr Aquilina that he was swerving while driving but he denied it and said he was driving normally, she said.

The officers then asked him to step out of the car, which he did. As police were taking his details a family friend, Joe Micallef, drove past and stopped to see if all was alright. He asked to speak to Mr Aquilina but the officers told him to drive on.

She described how Mr Aquilina was talking to Mr Tonna while she stood by their car and Mr Camilleri circled it and walked in a macho way. She could not really hear what the two were talking about.

Mr Tonna then went into the police car. She saw Mr Camilleri walk towards her boyfriend from behind and grab him by the neck, push him to the ground and punch him in the eye.

In an emotional testimony, during which time she was cautioned that action could be taken against her for perjury, she insisted that she was telling the truth.

“I can't understand what happened. I'd love to know why,” she said as a court marshal brought her some water.

She went on to describe how Mr Tonna then got out of the police car and went to hold down Mr Aquilina while Mr Camilleri punched and kicked him.

“I asked why they were doing that and they could kill him. I tried to pull David,” she said adding that she then dialled 112, but no one answered, then called her father.

Meanwhile he continued being beaten, she said.

”At one point Jean was face down with his face against the tarmac and a shoe on his face. David's shoe,” she said. The officers then pulled him up from the ground and placed him against his car, breaking the mirror. Then they took him to the pavement and continued beating him, she said, adding that they only stopped when more police officers arrived.

One of the new officers handcuffed her boyfriend and she saw that he had blood on his clothes and injuries on his face. She went to the Mosta police station and filed a police report while her boyfriend was taken to the health centre.

The 11-second recording of the 112 telephone call was played in court. One could hear screeching and shouting before the line went dead.

“That was me screaming: why are you doing that, you’re going to kill him,” she said later.

Cross examined by lawyer Tonio Azzopardi, for Mr Camilleri, she insisted that she was telling the truth and that her boyfriend had done nothing to provoke the violence.

Asked if she was twisting the truth to defend her boyfriend she replied: “If you want to call me a liar, say what you want. I know the truth and we will all soon know the truth.”

The lawyer then asked her if she feared her boyfriend.

“I love him with all my heart and I'm not scared of him. What question is this?” she said.

Police Inspector Ramon Mercieca is prosecuting while lawyer Arthur Azzopardi is representing Mr Tonna and lawyer Mario de Marco is appearing in parte civile.