An independent inquiry carried out in the wake of the Safi detention centre riot on 13 March 2008 has found Detention Services personnel used excessive force during a roundup of the riot’s suspected ringleaders, undertaken 11 days after the incident itself.

The inquiry, penned by Martin Scicluna at the request of the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry immediately after it received complaints of abuse during the roundup, found that “in a number of cases force was used by some Detention Service personnel which went beyond rough manhandling of the individuals and amounted to excessive force”. It also found that “many of the complainants were subjected to undue physical treatment resulting in abrasions, bruising and tenderness”.

In short, a roundup of the suspected ringleaders of the 13 March riot was carried out in the early morning hours of 24 March. These ringleaders were identified, handcuffed and separated from the rest of the detainees. The alleged ringleaders were then confined in a small room, still handcuffed, for some five to six hours.

While confined, the complainants claim they were beaten in the form of punches and kicks and “other forms of hits to the body”, that they were kept handcuffed for several hours, and that they were prevented from eating as they had been left handcuffed behind their backs.

Detention Services personnel interviewed during the inquiry denied the beatings, but admitted there may have been manhandling. They also insisted that the handcuffs had been removed to the front of their bodies to allow them to eat.

Bruises and lacerations reported by doctors tending to the complaintants, it was explained by officers interviewed, had resulted from infighting between detainees in the recreation area.

Doctors examining the injured detainees expressed their professional opinion that the bruises and abrasions observed had resulted from either punches or hits to the body.

One of the alleged 13 ringleaders was found to have sustained a broken arm, but was apparently too frightened to talk and had not lodged a complaint.

Contacted yesterday, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici commented that, “The government is committed to ensuring that the dignities and rights of all individuals are both respected and protected in our country, it will not tolerate any violation of these rights.”

The speed with which the inquiry was undertaken and the fact that the report was being made public served the interests of transparency, which the government was determined to stick to.

All the recommendations resulting from the inquiry, the minister added, were expected to be fully implemented and in place by the end of next week.

Among the recommendations emerging from the report was that “appropriate action should be taken to reprimand the Detention Services personnel involved in this operation and the relevant NCOs (non-commissioned officers) for the acts of excessive force used by some personnel in their charge”.

It also recommended that appropriate action should be taken in respect of the “misjudgement of keeping the 13 alleged ringleaders handcuffed and in confinement for so long on 24 March” and that proper medical backup should be supplied in future similar operations.

Among the wider implications of the operation, it has also been recommended that video cameras are used during future operations, as well as during riots, from beginning to end so as to ensure a proper visual record to be used later as evidence.

It was also recommended that such operations are planned in close cooperation with the police, and that if a riot or disturbance occurs in future the military or police response to deal with the perpetrators must be immediate.

While the inquiry published yesterday fell short of singling out the particular officers accountable for the use of excessive force during the roundup, due to conflicting versions of the series of events on 24 March, Mr Scicluna observed, “I am not convinced beyond reasonable doubt as to who committed these acts of excessive force, although it is possible that L/Bdr Lanzon, L/Bdr Pickard and L/Bdr Scerri may have been involved.”

The inquiry also found that there was an error in judgement in having kept the complaintants handcuffed for so long in such a confined space, adding that the confinement itself amounted to a “disproportionate exercise of discipline and restraint”.

Moreover, the inquiry also found that access to medical treatment after the completion of the operation was not properly handled.

While finding there had been a “justified wish” on the part of the Commander of Detention Services Brian Gatt to arraign the riot’s ringleaders and to bring them to justice in light of the criminal damages caused during the riot, the operation was handicapped by a number of factors.

First was the 11-day gap between the riot itself and the roundup operation. Mr Scicluna observed that although he had seen pictures of the home-made weapons allegedly used during the riot, the time lapse between the riot and the ringleaders’ police arraignment rendered “a lot of the evidence suspect”.

He adds, “It is clear with hindsight that action to arraign the rioters should have been taken on 13 March itself, not several days later, to stand any chance of success.”

The 24 March operation, according to the inquiry, had two aims: one to separate the 13 alleged ringleaders from other detainees for arraignment, and another to relocate other detainees to different premises as the Detention Services had reason to believe there was a genuine threat to a new catering contractor when it began a new meals contract at the Safi centre on the same day.

“The two aims made an already ambitious operation, involving some 111 detainees and about 90 AFM and Detention Service personnel, more complex and difficult to execute,” the inquiry found.

Another factor handicapping the operation was the fact that the police had not been informed of the operation beforehand and, as such, were not available to arraign the alleged ringleaders when they had been identified and kept in custody.

“This,” the inquiry noted, “led to the alleged ringleaders being kept in confinement for up to six hours and the Police not actually starting their interviews until 25 and 27 March.”

Moreover, the inquiry’s report noted, the potential “need for medical in an operation of this nature should have been foreseen and catered for – both for detainees and Detention Service personnel – if necessary by calling on the AFM medical officer to be present.”