Nicholas Azzopardi case | anomalies in assistant commissioner’s involvement

In the series of features on the Nicholas Azzopardi case, serious doubts emerged regarding the mysterious death of Azzopardi, who passed away in 2008 after sustaining serious injuries in an "accident" while under arrest at the Police Headquarters in Floriana.

Shortly before dying on 23 April 2008, Azzopardi was recorded on film recounting that two unnumbered police officers had beaten him to a pulp (the exact words he used were 'faqawni' and 'tawni xebgha tal-beati Pawli').

Since then, three magisterial enquiries and an internal police enquiry have exonerated all police officers involved in the case of all wrongdoing; but the family of the deceased, backed by a team of legal, forensic, medical and IT experts, has all along insisted that these enquiries had overlooked vital clues and misinterpreted crucial data which would otherwise point towards foul play.

Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar

A key actor in the case is Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar who was involved in the case from the very beginning, before Azzopardi's arraignment and was also present in hospital together with the inquiring Magistrate Anthony Vella, just a few hours before Azzopardi died.

Cassar was first informed of the allegations of abuse against Azzopardi filed by the deceased's wife Claudette at the end of February 2008. Following a long history of marital problems between Azzopardi and his wife, Agenzija Appogg took over the case and informed Cassar, who heads the corp's Vice Squad, of its investigations.

In March, Cassar received a letter from Appogg in regards to its investigations into the alleged sexual abuse by Azzopardi on his daughter. The Assistant Commissioner refers the case to newly appointed Inspector, Graziella Muscat.

Inspector Graziella Muscat's shocking comments

In Judge Albert Manche's inquiry, Cassar testified that Graziella Muscat was a recent addition to the Vice-Squad and said that he had guided her in the case "since she was new."

On 26 March 2008, Muscat met with Melissa Xuereb, the social worker engaged by Appogg to cover the alleged sexual abuse. In the case discussion report filed by Xuereb, included in the inquiry led by Magistrate Anthony Vella, Police Inspector Muscat is quoted as saying that she needed sound proof in order to proceed against Nicholas Azzopardi.

In her report Xuereb wrote that "Graziella told me if she knew that someone was abusing her child she would probably wish he would be dead or sentenced to jail."

Subsequently, Graziella Muscat led the six-hour interrogation of Nicholas Azzopardi on 9 April, the same day Azzopardi was found lying unconscious at the foot of the bastions at the back of the Police depot.

In the social worker's report it also emerges that Claudette Azzopardi was hesitant about proceeding against her husband because she did not want him to be imprisoned; however the social worker wrote that Claudette's mother, Antoinette Patiniott, from Zejtun, wields great influence on her daughter and "controls Claudette, even in what she says." In fact Graziella Muscat said that the report on sexual abuse was filed by the maternal grandmother.

Michael Cassar orders interrogation of Azzopardi's daughter

On 6 April, Azzopardi's wife was at the police depot and AC Michael Cassar spotted her in Muscat's office. He informed Claudette Azzopardi of the consequences of filing a false declaration. He added that he was not convinced by Claudette's statements and soon exited the office.

On the same day, Cassar said that he saw Muscat appoaching Nicholas Azzopardi at the depot, at which point he called the inspector and asked who the man is. In his testimony, Cassar admitted that he ordered Muscat to send Azzopardi back home without revealing that he was being accused of sexual abuse.This prevented Nicholas Azzopardi from being aware what was really going on and from seeking the advice of his lawyer.

Cassar ordered Muscat to call for the seven-year-old daughter before informing Nicholas Azzopardi of the serious allegations made against him. Strangly, Cassar said that he told Muscat to pick the girl up from school together with a social worker and take the girl over to the depot without informing both parents.

Under normal circumstances, when all the necessary investigations are carried out by the social workers, there would be no need to interrogate a seven-year-old child without informing the parents.

On Tuesday 8 April, Muscat picked the girl up from home after school, however when the girl arrived she said that she would only go to the depot if her dad, Nicholas was with her.

Nicholas Azzopardi who was still not aware why the police wanted to interrogate his daughter, accompanied the girl voluntarily to the Police headquarters.

Cassar's involvement in interrogations

In his testimony to Judge Manche, Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar insisted he was not involved in the interrogations, but said that Muscat was keeping him informed of what was going on and he was guiding her.

The inquiries held in the death of Nicholas Azzopardi included logs of all phone calls and phone numbers of the officers involved. A number of phone calls, as admitted by Cassar himself originated from his office and his listed number is recurrent throughout the events which led to the incident. However, Cassar's listed number was also linked to other officers at the depot.

Before the child's interrogation even started, an incoming call to Graziella Muscat's mobile phone from Cassar's listed number was registered just before she entered the depot with Azzopardi and his daughter, possibly instructing her to leave Azzopardi's car outside the depot grounds.

This is against all standard procedure because when a vehicle is to be searched, the car is parked inside the depot and the search is conducted before the suspect's belongings, including the car keys are confiscated.

Nicholas Azzopardi was kept overnight at the depot under arrest for further interrogation. After being taken to hospital twice, after complaining of chest pain, Azzopardi underwent a six-hour interrogation by Muscat on 9 April.

Cassar said that he was unaware of the interrogation's proceedings noted that he called Muscat only once during the interrogation.

However, Muscat received six calls from the same number on which Cassar's office is listed. The calls were received between 12pm and 16:30pm, during which time Azzopardi was interrogated by Muscat.

At the end of the six-hour interrogation, Azzopardi signed a five-page statement in which he denied any wrongdoing and added that the accusations were fabricated by his wife.

Car search

Following the six-hour interrogation, Azzopardi was escorted by Police Sergeant Adrian Lia and constable Rueben Zammit towards his car to carry out a search.

Apart from the fact that the car was parked outside the depot grounds and that the keys had been taken away from him the day before, another question mark hovers around where the order come to take Azzopardi to the car and have him wait behind the Forensics building while his wife and mother-in-law were removed from the reception area.

As the two officers were escorting Azzopardi towards the back of the forensics building, Ruben Zammit called the listed number, which includes Cassar's office. However, in all inquires held it never transpired who Zammit called and whether Cassar was in touch with his subordinates.

A few moments later, the alleged incident happened behind the forensics building.

The aftermath

In his testimonies, Cassar said that he was not at the depot when the incident happened and that Graziella Muscat phoned him at home to inform him about the alleged fall.

While Adrian Lia was alone with Nicholas Azzopardi under the bastion wall "giving him first aid" he received a call from the same number listed as Cassar's office.

Although, Cassar told Judge Manche that he did not lead any internal investigation in the hours following the incident, he did actually carry out a fully-blown investigation, in which he collected the evidence of Muscat, Lia, Zammit and Sergeant Rogers, who was responsible for the lock-up area.

The Vella inquiry included the documented evidence collected by Cassar in his own office at 9pm, just over two hours after the incident. This means that Cassar was the first person to investigate and interrogate his own subordinates and nobody else from the Police Corps and outside the Vice Squad carried out an investigation.

Cassar was also involved in the selection of the court expert, after the unsuccessful attempt to nominate two other experts. Cassar suggested Dr A. Cutajar who by chance happened to be in his office and was readily available.

He stated that he wanted the testimonies of those involved to be taken as quickly as possible to quash any allegations of possible agreed versions between those involved.

Curiously, Cassar had complete confidence in shamed Adrian Lia. The former Sergeant, had deceived the police force and the government into believing he had saved a woman from drowning in 1997, and went on to resign from the force after being charged with the theft of €30,000 in cash from the Police depot in Floriana in 2012.

In his testimony Cassar said that he would not have asked for Lia's removal over his antics, 'on the contrary, I if he is taken away from me, I will ask for his re-instatement (in the Vice-Squad). The vice squad is the police unit whose focus is stopping moral crimes like gambling, narcotics, fraud, economic crimes, pornography, prostitution and illegal sales of alcohol.

Cassar visits Azzopardi at hospital

Cassar said that at first he did not visit Azzopardi at hospital because it was no longer a police case but was a court matter.

However he told Judge Manche that later, he felt that it was his duty to visit Azzopardi on 22 April, the day Azzopardi died.

Strangely, Cassar only visited after Azzopardi regained consciousness and recorded his testimony on video and Cassar's visit' coincided with that of Magistrate Vella.

Apart from Magistrate Vella, Cassar visited Azzopardi together with Inspector Muscat.

Cassar said that he never met Azzopardi in person but when he visited the latter at hospital, he was immediately recognised.

Another chilling coincidence is that Azzopardi died on the same day after revealing more details about the chain of events which led him to be found unconscious in the ditch below the bastions to his friend. Azzopardi recounted how two unnumbered policemen beat him up in an enclosed space.

Also, albeit a nurse who was in charge of Azzopardi commented that the patient was conscious and did not show suicidal tendencies, Magistrate Vella ordered a psychiatric assessment to be carried out after interrogating him and hearing Azzopardi's version.

Speaking on the autopsy, Cassar stated that Azzopardi died from thrombosis but added that there were four other collaborating factors , one was the fall , another a punctured lung and a tumour which the victim did not even know about. Funnily, this was not mentioned by anyone else in the inquiries, not even the medical experts.