The girlfriend of a man who was allegedly beaten by RIU officers in Mgarr said in court today that she cannot understand why he was being beaten.

Testifying before Magistrate Carol Peralta, she gave evidence against RIU officers David Camilleri and Mark Tonna who are pleading not guilty to assaulting Jean Paul Aquilina on 3 May.

Her boyfriend, Aquilina, is pleading not guilty to assaulting the two officers in a separate case.

She testified that they were at a family barbecue in Mgarr and left. A police car lit up its siren and stopped them.

She claims the officers said he was swerving but she denied this and said he was driving normally. He was asked out of the car and his details were taken, she said.

A family friend then drove past and checked if everything was ok. She told the Court that the Officers told him to keep driving.

She told the court that she could not quite hear the conversation. She explained how Mr Camilleri circled round the car and grabbed her boyfriend's hand behind his back, turned it around and put him on the ground. She said he then punched him in the eye.

She said that her boyfriend did not resist.

The other officer, she said, went to hold her boyfriend, while Mr Camilleri punched and kicked him.

She said she tried to pull of RIU Officer Camilleri and then called 112, however did not get through to the police.

“I felt useless,” she said.

She said that her boyfriend was face down with the tarmac.

Another police car showed up and her boyfriend was handcuffed, she explained, and soon after her parents and more officers arrived.

“My father asked who beat him up, and David Camilleri stepped forward and said he had nothing to hide”.

She stressed that it was not true that her boyfriend grabbed officer Camilleri by the neck. “I know the truth,” she said.