Kamara death | Magistrate denounces army officers’ ‘mise en scene’

A court has described the testimony of three AFM officers as a “mise en scene” with a view to exonerate themselves from the death of Malian asylum seeker Mamadou Kamara in 2012 after his escape from the Safi detention centre.

Magistrate Antonio Vella was in no doubt as to what really happened that night as he found Bombardier Gordon Pickard guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by tampering with evidence related to the investigation into the brutal death of the migrant, sentencing him to the maximum 18 months in jail.

The court said it could see no mitigating circumstances to merit a reduction from the maximum punishment for the offence at law.

The court described the testimony of Clive Cuschieri and Mark Anthony Dimech as a “messa in scena” – a frame-up.

“So it was established that Clive Cuschieri kicked Kamara . It was also established that Pickard stopped Cuschieri beating him up further. [...] So it is evident that at this stage, Mamadou [Kamara] is no longer aggressive. It is clear to the court that at this stage Mamadou is unconscious and not resisting. In fact the injuries which he suffered during this arrest led to his death within approximately half an hour.”

The court believes that it was precisely at this moment that Pickard, Cuschieri and Dimech came up with the idea of saying that Mamadou had struggled with them: “In order to have an alibi, they dragged the two Detention Service officers - Francis Scerri and Marco Cuschieri – into the story, asking for their handcuffs and getting them into the van.

“This would give the impression that five men were required to handle the struggle.”

The Magistrate argued that had the three remained on their own, suspicion would have immediately fallen on them and it would have been easier for the truth to emerge.

The court felt their testimony had raised more questions than answers: “It makes no sense that with just 12 officers stationed at the centre, guarding 730 detainees, five officers go with one prisoner – who is not resisting and is not showing any sign of life – leaving only seven officers to deal with the entire centre. It goes against all reason.”

“They didn’t even call an ambulance, something that at least one of them should have had the heart to do. No. Instead they call the centre for handcuffs to handcuff a person taking their dying breaths,” the court observed.

The Magistrate said that the choice of the “nearest clinic” made sense. The general practice is for injured detainees to be taken to the Floriana health centre. But in this case, the officers opted for the Paola clinic.

“And here the choice of the nearest clinic makes sense. Why didn’t they take him to Floriana? Why the urgency to take him to the nearest clinic? [...]The court believes this was part of the plan to obscure the truth.”

At the Paola clinic, the five officers released statements to the police and Pickard insisted several times that he never saw anyone hit Kamara.

The magistrate was not convinced by the accused’s repeated denials. To the contrary, the magistrate said, they further convinced the court that the accused knew precisely what he was doing and chose to try and protect his colleague by obscuring the truth – something that he was in duty bound to prevent, being a public official.

Forensic expert Mario Scerri, who conducted a detailed analysis on the corpse of the 32-year-old Malian migrant, said that although no external bruising was found on Kamara's corpse, he discovered haematoma in the victim's testicles, and the renal triangle. According to Scerri, Kamara died instantly following the blunt trauma he sustained, which triggered a vasovagal attack, a disorder that causes a rapid drop in heart rate and blood pressure, resulting in decreased blood flow to the brain and fainting.