Soldiers acquitted of involuntary homicide of Nigerian asylum seeker

Three former AFM soldiers have been acquitted of the involuntary homicide of a Nigerian asylum seeker who died of a heart attack in a cell at Hal Far in 2011, after being captured and beaten following an escape attempt.

Roderick Azzopardi, who had been second in command at the Ħal Far detention centre on the night 29-year-old Ifeanyi Nwokoye died, and co-accused Aldo Simiana and Carmela Camilleri had all denied the solitary charge of involuntary homicide.

Police Inspector Keith Arnaud had told the court that the trio had not been charged with wilful homicide as it had emerged that the migrant had not died as a direct result of the injuries inflicted during the beating.

The prosecution had claimed that Azzopardi was seen to punch the victim before the man was arrested.

At least four detention officers had taken a handcuffed Nwokoye back to the detention centre following his recapture after the escape of a group of detainees. He was carried, unconscious, into an isolation cell where he remained on the ground for about an hour.

Camilleri and Simiana had then found him unconscious in his cell. Nwokoye died on his way to hospital after suffering a heart attack.

Prosecuting police inspector Keith Arnaud had alleged that the man had died as a result of mistreatment, non-observance of regulations in his re-arrest. There was an “immense recklessness,” bordering on the inhuman, in the way which the victim had been handled, the inspector said.

Defence lawyers Joe Giglio, Veronique Dalli and Mario Mifsud, argued that the man had died as a result of a pre-existing medical condition that he had not disclosed to the detention officers. 

In her exhaustive 137-page study of case law and legal doctrine on the matter, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera noted that the case was unusually complex and  required the court to investigate persons to whom a stricter standard of conduct applied.

Maltese courts have long adopted the doctrine that for guilt in an involuntary offence, the harmful act must be voluntary, negligent, directly linked to the harm and the harmful outcome must have been predictable. Not every human error gives ground for liability, said the court.

The victim’s strength appeared to have failed him as he was climbing the fence, the magistrate observed, such that only one officer was needed to restrain him. He was loaded into the van, already unconscious.

Medical experts had established that the deceased had no external signs of violence, other than a bruise that “did not, in any way, contribute to his death.”

The magistrate praised the prosecutor for his arguments, which she said had been “well studied and of such detail that this court has rarely seen,” as well as the defence for its arguments which she said were “serious, studied and of a certain stature.”

The magistrate agreed with the prosecution on the inhuman treatment aspect, but noted that there was no causal link between the actions of the accused and the man’s death and so the crime of involuntary homicide “could never subsist.”

The court, however condemned the fact that the man was given prompt medical treatment, saying that it was “unacceptable that the immigrant is placed, handcuffed and face down in a van, not even in a seat. It appears that the accused officer Azzopardi did not treat people with dignity.”

The court strongly emphasised that the guards had also been under a subsidiary accusation of abusing their authority as public officials, a charge which required intent and should therefore never have been made in the context of an involuntary offence.

Azzopardi, Simiana and Camilleri were cleared of the all charges.

Lawyer Joe Giglio appeared on behalf of Azzopardi, lawyer Veronique Dalli was defence counsel to Simiana, while Camilleri was represented by lawyer Mario Mifsud.