The allegations of Fabrizio Sciré, who claimed that he was beaten up by members of the Rapid Intervention Unit in Zebbug last Saturday, are an “outright lie”, the President of the Police Officer’s Union within the General Workers Union Sandro Camilleri has said.

Speaking to inewsmalta, Camilleri said that he had been contacted by various people who had shown solidarity with the policemen involved but had questioned why the union had been silent.  He said that the union had been silent thus far due to the fact that an investigation into the case was ongoing and that it would not have been proper to make any statements before the policemen involved had given their version.

Camilleri referred to footage published by certain sections of the media, saying that this was not published in its entirety and showed only part of the situation.

The police union chief added that in no part of the film did it show that the policemen were being aggressive towards the man, as is being alleged; on the contrary, he said, it was the Sciré himself who was being aggressive towards the police and at one point, he said, the Italian even grabbed one of the police by the neck.

Camilleri concluded that naturally the person who makes the allegation must substantiate the allegation and added that these policemen were heroes and that even in the extreme weather that there was on Saturday they had stopped to help.  One must wait for the outcome of the investigations, he said, and then the union would move on from there.

A police spokesperson said on Tuesday that Sciré’s allegation and the footage were being investigated and emphasised that the police had denied beating up Sciré and his son – who was also present at the scene. The Italian embassy has also been informed of the case and is carrying out investigations as well.

The Sicilian businessman set up shop in Malta’s construction industry together with his family three years ago. He recounted to Times of Malta that last Saturday night, a neighbour of his stores in Żebbuġ informed him that one of his construction trucks, parked outside his stores, was on fire.

“I was desperate and in tears. I asked the police officers, already on site to help me move my other vehicles, which were also in danger of catching fire,” he said.

According to Sciré, some of the police officers surrounded him and instead of helping him started pushing him and calling him names.

 “At that point, one of the officers starting pushing me to the wall and punching me violently on the head while other officers joined in and kicked me in other parts of my body. Another police officer hit me on the head with his radio,” Sciré said.

He added that, his eldest son, who was present while the police were beating him, intervened to try to diffuse the situation.