Nicholas Azzopardi | Book reveals ‘secret’ police depot tunnel

A book to be launched tomorrow, co-authored by senior Labour official Evarist Bartolo, claims to reveal further evidence in the case of Nicholas Azzopardi, who died under mysterious circumstances while in police custody.

Entitled 'The Nicholas Azzopardi story', the publication includes previously unpublished photographic evidence of a 'secret' tunnel connecting the Floriana Police HQ with the ditch where Azzopardi had been found, unconscious and badly injured, after allegedly 'jumping' off the bastion in an escape attempt in April 2007.

Azzopardi, who later claimed police brutality in a dramatic deathbed testimonial, would succumb to his injuries in hospital.

The book's authors also include the victim's brother Reno Azzopardi, as well as a team of professionals.

The discovery of an unknown passage and tunnel just metres away from where the victim had been found unconscious could be the key to numerous missing links in the Nicholas Azzopardi case, which has been subject to three inconclusive enquiries.

Curiously, the three inquiries carried out into the case, including two site inspections by Judge Manche' and Magistrate Vella, completely ignored the existence of a tunnel linking the depot to the adjacent ditch.

In two site plans included in the inquiries, presented by two separate architects, the tunnel and its entrances do not appear anywhere.

Yet court expert Bajada testified that architect Valerio Schembri "noted and included of every door and window and every gate and barrel bolt at the depot."

The book, to be published tomorrow, shows that the tunnel could be accessed from the bottom of the bastion, just metres away from the spot Azzopardi was found unconscious, and also from the alley behind the depot, from where the police claimed that Azzopardi jumped.

The pictures published in the book show parts of the tunnel which are a dead end and other parts are closed with bars, which could explain a number of missing links or ambiguous evidence included in the inquiries.

Azzopardi's family has always insisted that the injuries sustained by Nicholas were not compatible with a fall, as claimed by the police. However their requests for an autopsy have repeatedly been turned down.

The existence of a tunnel may also clarify discrepancies between Azzopardi's deathbed claims and the police version. Azzopardi told his family that he had been 'taken down' and slammed against a 'gate' (kancell). The subsequent enquiries assumed this was in reference a gate in the bastions, close to where Azzopardi was believed to have jumped.

However, it is possible that Nicholas Azzopardi was referring to a gate in the underground tunnel (pictured on this page).

Above all, the tunnel linking the depot to the ditch may provide an alternative explanation to claims by Adrian Lia to have accessed the ditch through the main gate: despite the fact that none of the depot's security cameras (all of which are motion-sensitive) took footage of him climbing over the gate, or even on the other side of it.

What happened that fateful day

On 9 April 2008 Nicholas Azzopardi was interrogated by police sergeant Adrian Lia and PC Reuben Zammit, under supervision of Inspector Graziella Muscat, starting at 11am.

Six hours later, Azzopardi was rushed to hospital suffering severe injuries. The only communication about this incident was police press statement claiming that an unnamed detainee had injured himself while trying to escape.

His brother Reno Azzopardi was initially also told that Nicholas had "fallen out a window". Other versions, including that of Lia, suggest he had jumped over the bastion at the back of the Depot.

Nicholas's testimony

Nine days later, Nicholas Azzopardi regained consciousness in Mater Dei's ITU, and told his brother Reno and father Joseph that he had been severely beaten by two police officers. The exact words he used were 'faqawni' and 'tawni xebgha tal-beati Pawli.'

This testimony was recorded on tape and included in the enquires, together with the testimonies of other persons who spoke to Nicholas while he was in hospital.

Among the testimonies recorded, on Monday 20 April, Nicholas told a colleague: "I was grabbed from behind by one of the police officers. I reacted and pushed him against the gate, than I was beaten to a pulp."

The following day, when Azzopardi's condition had vastly improved he told another colleague and his workplace union representative, "I went to the Depot with my daughter, at one point she was taken away from me and ended up in a room where two men were waiting for me." Describing them as "large" men, Azzopardi added that "I was taken aback...because I suddenly found myself in a closed room...I could take one of them but the other one beat me up badly."

On 22 April, Nicholas Azzopardi died, barely two hours after testifying before Magistrate Antonio Vella, however his deathbed testimony was not recorded.