‘Black man’ comments raise eyebrows, but nothing more

The incident took place during yesterday's hearing in the ongoing murder trial over the death of a Sudanese refugee outside a Paceville club three years ago.

Suleiman Abubakar, a migrant given temporary humanitarian assistance by the Refugees Commission, died due to head injuries after allegedly being attacked outside Footloose club in May 2009.

Duncan Deguara, 28 of Paola, stands accused of causing Abubaker's death while 'escorting' him off the premises. He is pleading nort guilty to all charges.

Court reporters were meanwhile baffled to hear Mr Abubakar referred to as "that black man" (dak l-iswed) at various points during yesterday's hearing: not only by two witnesses, but also by the chief prosecutor and the presiding judge.

Contacted by MaltaToday, Neil Falzon, chairman of human rights watchdog aditus, said that use of such language in court is entirely out of place.

"If the victim was referred to as a 'black man', then it is highly inappropriate," Falzon said: stressing that he was unfamiliar with the precise context of the remarks, and therefore preferred to speak only in generic terms.

"Use of such language would be unacceptable even if the person's identity were completely unknown. In such cases it is always preferable to refer to 'the victim'. In this instance, however, every aspect of the victim's identity was fully known to all concerned, including his name..."

Falzon added that identifying a person only by his skin colour is not only questionable and indecorous, but also "irrelevant".

Separately, Chamber of Advocates president Dr Reuben Balzan was reluctant to comment "without a clear picture of the context".

"Like you I was shocked by the idea that a man would be referred that way in court," he said when contacted yesterday. "But before knowing the full context I would prefer not to comment for now."

Balzan added that in criminal trials, there are sometimes valid circumstances in which the use of such language - for instance, while quoting from a witness's testimony, or repeating language used outside the court while giving evidence - is considered acceptable, even if offensive.

"I can't say that this is the case here; I'm just pointing out that such circumstances do occasionally arise in court."

In yesterday's session there were at least six references to the victim Suleiman Abubaker as the 'black man', at moments when words failed both lawyers and witnesses in spelling out the Sudanese victim's name.

The references were made mainly by witnesses Ashley Conti, a dancer, and Christian Tanti; but when asking questions to the witnesses, both prosecutor Maurizio Cordina and even Judge Michael Mallia also referred to the victim as the 'black man'.

Ironically, the death of the Suleiman Abubakar had sparked outrage and a national protest in 2009, when many carried protesters with his name.