A meeting of the police board that according to a ministerial statement was supposed to have been open to the media was closed to journalists because the law prohibits such an exercise.
Following internal Police Corps investigations it was decided that the case of a person charged in court by mistake over a hold up will start to be heard immediately before an independent board known as the Police Board, a Home Affairs and National Security Ministry statement said.
The board is chaired by retired Judge Franco Depasquale. It started to meet today and, although a ministerial statement earlier said that the meeting would be open to the media, Judge Depasquale said that the law prevented him from opening the proceedings to the press. The meeting was in fact held behind closed doors, and the final report will be presented to the minister and police commissioner.
In a statement earlier, the government said the board will meet on Monday yet in an update, it noted that a decision was taken for the board to meet at 4.30pm today. The latest development resulted after Judge Depasquale took note of the ministerial statement that it would like a fast paced and transparent process.
The board intends to clearly establish the sequence of events that led to the arraignment and the steps to be taken. The procedure is expected to take a few weeks.
Home Affairs and National Security Minister Manuel Mallia insisted a fast pace should be adopted in investigations for the facts to be established.
On Friday, the government ordered an investigation on why a man was erroneously charged with a hold-up following a Nationalist Party statement to condemn the operations of the police corps after an innocent person was arraigned in court three days ago – and charged with a hold-up.
The man, Darryl Luke Borg, 27 of Birkirkara, was accused of a hold-up on Wednesday from a shop in Birkirkara by mistake because of miscommunication between different branches of the police force.
He was accused of carrying out a hold-up at The Convenience Shop in Birkirkara, robbing between €700 and €1,300. After he pleaded not guilty in front of Magistrate Doreen Clarke and was remanded in custody on Wednesday, the police arraigned another man for the same crime on Friday.
Roderick Grech, 22 of Birkirkara, admitted to the hold-up and was condemned to a 12-month jail term suspended for two years and placed under a supervision order.
Inspector Elton Taliana told Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit that the first arraignment was made by the Criminal Investigation Department but it was in fact the accused Roderick Grech who had committed the crime. He blamed the situation on lack of communication within the police force. The accused Roderick Grech had even handed over the balaclava and a toy plastic gun used in the hold-up, he said.
The CCTV footage clearly showed the man’s stature which matched Grech's.
Lawyers Joseph Gatt and David Camilleri, who are representing Darryl Luke Borg, filed an urgent request for their client's immediate release and this was upheld.