Nicholas Azzopardi’s injuries: incompatible with alleged fall?

One of the major lacunae emerging in the Nicholas Azzopardi inquiries is what really happened behind the forensic department building at the Police headquarters in Floriana, where Azzopordi allegedly fell the height of three storeys into the ditch beneath the headquarters on the fateful day he was rushed to hospital where he would later succumb to his fatal injuries.

Despite the headquarters' tight surveillance by CCTV, the alleged incident happened in a blind spot where - going by a recent reply to a parliamentary question - allegedly 12 other persons also fell down in attempts to escape from what was then a holding centre for migrants.

MaltaToday's ongoing coverage has so far revealed evidence of missing and edited video footage which had been analysed by court expert Martin Bajada, and how doubts were raised over the soundness of this evidence. Contacted by MaltaToday, Bajada has refused to comment on his involvement in the inquiries.

In their testimonies, Azzopardi's escorts at the time of the incident - former Sergeant Adrian Lia and police constable Rueben Zammit - claimed that Azzopardi threw himself over the wall of the bastions beneath the CID headquarters on 9 April 2008.

As Azzopardi was being escorted to the rear of the forensic block by Zammit, his shoes had no laces since these had been removed while he was being held in the lock-up. In the sequence of events that followed, Lia claimed that he turned around the forensic block's corner, where he saw Azzopardi and Zammit standing by a wall, 20 metres away from him, where the incident subsequently took place.

From investigations carried out by Azzopardi's family, who have become actively involved in uncovering more details surrounding the incident, Nicholas Azzopardi was retrieved, unconscious, from a spot beneath the bastions that was at least 60 metres away from where Lia was standing.

In their testimonies, the two police officers recounted that as soon as Lia called Zammit and Azzopardi to reach him, Azzopardi climbed over the wall, which had horizontal wooden beams hammered into it, wearing unlaced shoes.

They then said that Zammit, who weighed around 65 kilogrammes, grabbed Azzopardi, who weighed 120 kilogrammes, by one hand; while Azzopardi was hanging over the wall overlooking the ditch below the depot. Lia claimed that Zammit was trying to prevent Azzopardi from jumping off the wall but after a brief struggle, Azzopardi fell down the wall.

Just before this alleged incident happened, Police Constable 990, C. Abela drove through the road behind the forensic block (Image 4), however Abela testified that he did not see Azzopardi and Zammit, although the latter had said that he remembers seeing Abela drive past them in the narrow road.

Image 4: The road behind the forensic block and the wall over which Azzopardi allegedly threw himself.

In his first inquiry held in May 2008, Magistrate Anthony Vella had accepted court expert Martin Bajada's conclusion that it was impossible to have assaulted a man of Azzopardi's stature and then throw him over the bastions in the space 2 minutes and 48 seconds - the time clocked on CCTV footage that was presented as evidence of the movements of the police officers.

As shown in a previous report on the Nicholas Azzopardi case, police constable Abela only spent around 21 seconds inside the IRU office and came running out of the office with a shocked look on his face, on hearing the commotion outside.

However none of the magisterial enquiries (the other was conducted by Albert Manché) held have explained clearly what caused this state of shock.

Abela claimed that he did not look over the wall, where Azzopardi lay unconscious on the concrete floor below the bastions. Yet, in his testimonies Abela said that he knew that somebody must have been below the wall.

Reuben Zammit's injuries

As Lia returned to the spot where he had left Azzopardi guarded by Zammit, he claimed that the two men stood around 20 metres away from him. In his testimonies he said that Azzopardi launched himself over the wall, wearing unlaced shoes.

The enquiries did not explain how Azzopardi managed to climb over the wall, wearing unlaced shoes. However, according to Lia and Zammit, Azzopardi manged to get over the wall and stand on the rounded ledge wearing unlaced shoes.

Image 1: A simulation of PC Rueben Zammit restraining Azzopardi from jumping, as alleged by police officers' testimonies.

At this point, Zammit explained that he first tried to hold Azzopardi beneath his arms (Image 1) and then held on to the victim with his left hand (Image 2), although Azzopardi weighed twice as much as the police officer.

Image 2: A simulation of Zammit holding Azzopardi with his left arm despite weighing half the victim's weight.

Due to the wall's thickness and height, Zammit could have suffered some kind of injury, possibly injuring or breaking his wrist, or dislocating his elbow or shoulder. Yet, according to the medical records presented to the first Vella inquiry, Zammit's injuries amounted to "multiple superficial abrasions" to his elbow pits and lower abdomen "consistent with an abrasion across a rough surface as a wall."

The report filed on 12 April 2008 by Dr Jonathan Joslin, a specialist in emergency medicine, stated: "there are abrasions with minor skin loss over the dorsal aspect of the left hand mainly in the knuckle region of the 4th finger."

Dr Joslin concluded that these abrasions were "consistent with fingernail abrasions". However, the swab and nail scrapings taken from Azzopardi at the hospital emergency showed no trace of Zammit's DNA.

Curiously, Zammit also suffered a linear abrasion of about 3cm across the middle of his back although from Zammit's testimony this part of his body was out of reach from Azzopardi, who was hanging over the wall. When asked by Magistrate Vella, Zammit  said that he does not know how he suffered the injury.

The alleged fall

As Zammit allegedly lost hold of Azzopardi's hand, the victim fell the height of around three storeys.

At this point, Azzopardi, who was being held vertically by Zammit, would have had a remaining 22 feet to fall along the slightly sloped wall (Image 3).

Image 3: The spot where Azzopardi, who measured above six feet, allegedly fell and the height of the wall.

According to the principles of motion, this fall would have taken just 1.1 seconds and this would not have given Azzopardi enough time to rotate and fall on his side, as stated in Magistrate Vella's inquiry.

In the inquiry, Dr Mario Scerri, a clinical forensic physician, reported that Azzopardi landed on his left side and linked Azzopardi's injuries to a "violent impact" on the left side of his body.

However, according to the evidence given by Zammit, Azzopardi was left hanging for a few seconds in a vertical position which would not have given the victim enough time and distance to rotate on his left side and sustain the kind of injuries he suffered.

Since Azzopardi was left hanging for a few seconds against the sloping wall, he would have certainly suffered some kind of abrasions following the impact with the sloping wall. Yet, the victim had no abrasions on his body as a result of the impact against the wall but suffered completely different injuries.

Azzopardi's injuries

The medical results from the CT scans, performed on Azzopardi hours after his alleged fall, show that he suffered from multiple rib fractures on his left side with displacement of fractured bones to the chest, a collapsed and punctured left side lung, contusion on the right side lung, fractures of the spinous processes in his back, avulsion of the left iliac bone (pelvis), a contusion at back of his head, damaged left elbow and abrasions on his chest and abdomen.

Since Azzopardi suffered injuries on opposite sides of his body and his back this does not support the version that he fell from such a height.

Although Dr Joslin's report states that Azzopardi's injuries were "compatible" with a fall from a height of two or three storeys, doubts remain on the real cause of Azzopardi's injuries.

In his documented testimony while he was recovering in hospital, Azzopardi told his family and a number of friends that two unnumbered police officers had beaten him to a pulp (the exact words he used were 'faqawni' and 'tawni xebgha tal-beati Pawli'). This could explain why Azzopardi suffered injuries on opposite sides of his body, including his spine and the displacement of fractured bones from his ribs.

According to Dr Scerri, 98% of falls from a height result in the fracture of the long bones, ankles and wrists which would result from the normal reaction to protect the body.

In his medical report, the physician wrote that fracture of long bones could only be avoided "if the person is unconscious during the flight or is dead or if there is a sudden change of flight direction (as found in certain cases of interrupted falls) or the flight is not long enough to allow the person to manoeuvre in air and assume a position which protects the body from the fall. These kind of fractures are called resistance fractures."

In his report, Dr Scerri added that Azzopardi was neither dead nor unconscious during the alleged fall and did not suffer from "resistance fractures because the flight was limited and Azzopardi started the flight in a vertical position with his head upwards."

Adrian Lia's evidence

Former police sergeant Adrian Lia testified that as he ran towards Azzopardi and Zammit while the two were struggling, running a distance of 60 metres, reaching Zammit and seeing Azzopardi fall down, all in a matter of a few seconds.

Azzopardi's alleged fall would have taken 1.1 seconds, but Lia said that he saw the victim's flight before touching ground, even though a fig tree along the bastion wall would have obstructed his field of vision.

On his part, Zammit, said that although he was holding Azzopardi by hand before the fall, he did not see Azzopardi's flight.

In another dubious version of events, Lia stated that he saw Azzopardi hold his head with his left hand and his nose with his right hand, as divers flipping backwards from a boat normally do in order to hold their mask. Lia could have pointed out this to give further credibility to his version, knowing that Azzopardi was a diver.

Lia may have not been aware that Azzopardi was an apnoea spear fisherman for over 25 years, and that he never pressure-compensated by blocking his nose with his right hand since by habit, being right-handed, he held the spear gun with his right hand and pressure compensated with his free left hand.