Police commissioner says 80s abuse allegations ‘a pack of lies’

Newly appointed Commissioner of Police Peter Paul Zammit has denounced a 1987 court testimony accusing him of encouraging the abuse of a police suspect, as "a pack of lies".

The Nationalist Party's organ il-mument set much store on Sunday in reproducing the testimony of prison inmate Louis Pace, who had accused Peter Paul Zammit of having encouraged police officers in 1985 to beat him up under interrogation.

Pace, who died from gunshot wounds in 1996, had been convicted for the kidnap and prostitution of a minor.

The testimony was made in a defamation case the police corps filed in 1987 against the Catholic Youth Workers' newspaper Il-Haddiema Zghazagh, but which was later dropped in May that year when the Nationalist Party was elected to power.

Zammit, formerly a police superintendent who in the past years worked as legal procurator, was appointed by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to replace John Rizzo as Commissioner of Police earlier this month.

According to the testimony of Louis Pace of 1987, police officers beat him up using canes and chairs during his interrogation at the Msida police station, sprayed insect-killer in his eyes and taunted him with a threat to insert a broomstick up his anus. Peter Paul Zammit was described as having witnessed the interrogation "with his feet resting on the desk, drinking whisky and saying 'tuh' [beat him]."

Pace died in 1996 at the age of 43, suffering fatal wounds in a shoot-out. He was a "known criminal suspect" - as described by il-mument - and ostensibly a Nationalist Patry supporter, going by the mere fact that he had the PN's party emblem tattooed on his arm.

On his part, Zammit told MaltaToday that he had contacted the editor of the PN organ "expressing [his] hurt and indignation."

"I complained as to the lack of ethics in not being questioned on the matter. The editor is holding his ground, calling it an investigative journalistic piece," Zammit said.

"Although I confirm that most of what was written on Sunday had already appeared years ago, I can only confirm it as a pack of lies, which was fashionable then to besmirch the Police," Zammit said.

"In 1987 there was a change in government and that was when the libel case was dropped. Furthermore no action at all was taken in my regard. The accused was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment on a number of charges, not least the kidnapping and illegal arrest and inducement into prostitution of a minor," Zammit, who would be later promoted in the police corps' ranks, said.

"Also the medical examination of the accused requested by me on the day of arraignment, refuted the alleged brutality. Conveniently the investigation by il-mument did not turn up these facts," Zammit said.

The Commissioner of Police said he was not seeking damages on the report. "We all have to bear the responsibility of our actions and in my opinion the best judgment is that done by one's peers."