Mamma mia, what a lot of good Mintoff did. How it outweighed the bad, marelli. We should be mature and speak well of him.

Published: August 27, 2012 at 9:10pm

This is the story of Anthony Mifsud, a prison guard in his 20s, who was tortured by members of Mintoff’s police force.

Louis Bartolo, the man who shot and killed Malta’s most notorious Labour thug and government henchman – John Bondin aka Il-Fusellu, whose mother washed Mintoff’s floors – had escaped from prison before trial and fled the country.

The Labour government wanted somebody to blame for his escape, because Bartolo was no ordinary prisoner. He was the man who killed Fusellu, Labour’s Chief Keeper of Corruption, Official Taker of Bribes, Holder of Criminal Gains and Front for Labour Ministers.

His death in turn led to the murder of Lino Cauchi, accountant to John Bondin’s widow, who was kidnapped in Valletta, killed with a blow to the head, and hacked to pieces with a handsaw, then thrown into a disused well.

The bones were found in that well two years later. The murder was never solved.

Mifsud the prison guard never recovered from the torture and has carried the psychological damage ever since, fighting for compensation.

————

The Malta Independent, 31 October 2008

Court: Framed-up prison warder awarded €186,000
by Bernard Busuttil

Former prison warder Anthony Mifsud was awarded €186,349.87 (Lm80,000) in damages after a court found that his human rights were breached when he was tortured into admitting his involvement in a prison break that took place 26 years ago.

Mr Mifsud instituted legal proceedings against the Commissioner of Police, and in person against former Police Commissioner Lawrence Pullicino and former Police Superintendents Carmelo Bonello and Joseph Psaila.

The First Hall of the Civil Courts in its Constitutional Jurisdiction, presided over by Mr Justice Raymond Pace, found them guilty of breaching Mr Mifsud’s fundamental human rights.

Mr Mifsud was arrested on 11 June 1982 and charged in court on 15 June 1982 with giving in to corruption and conspiring to aid the prison break of Louis Bartolo and Ahmed Khalil Habib. Mr Bartolo, who has since died, was at the time awaiting trial for the murder of John Bondin, known as il-Fusellu in 1981. In 1988, he was acquitted of the murder as he acted in self-defence. Habib was a Palestinian terrorist.

The court heard how Mr Mifsud was arrested at the Corradino Correctional Facility after he received a phone call at home telling him two inmates had escaped. At the time, the 24-year-old man was a policeman through his membership of the Dejma Corps and was a prison warder.

On arrival, he was intercepted by two plainclothes policemen who took him to the Police General Headquarters where he was taken to a small room with another six people. He was accused of helping Louis Bartolo escape and they started punching him, while a police major kneed him in the stomach. He fell on the floor and was picked up and the beating resumed.

“I saw Superintendent Bonello place a chair in the middle of the room and pick up a firearm from a number of weapons on the table. He picked up a shotgun then a revolver,” Mr Mifsud told the court.

He described how the policeman pressed a revolver to his head and heard the trigger move as he asked him where Louis Bartolo was while counting from one to three.

The beating resumed as Mr Mifsud remained silent and he was jerked off his chair. At this point, he saw Superintendent Psaila holding a whip (nerf twil) and started flogging him on his legs. Mr Mifsud retaliated and took the whip out of the superintendent’s hands with the result that the whole room jumped on him and he fell unconscious due to the beating.

After regaining consciousness, Mr Mifsud found himself in a cell within the Police GHQ. He could not eat the food he was given as he was too much in pain and was coughing up blood.

He underwent another beating session in the afternoon at the hands of the same people who threatened him with locking him up in a mental hospital for life should he not reveal Mr Bartolo’s whereabouts. He was then thrown in isolation and was later coerced into signing a confession.

Mr Mifsud was charged in court some 100 hours after his arrest, more than twice the legal limit of 48 hours. He was later coerced into signing a false statement admitting his guilt.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice Raymond Pace, held that the former Commissioner of Police was responsible for breaching Mr Mifsud’s rights as he did not take action to stop illegalities.

Then Commissioner Lawrence Pullicino said he was abroad and returned at work on 13 June 1982. He said he did not carry out personally the interrogation and Mr Mifsud had already been in custody for two days.

The court held that Dr Pullicino did nothing to mend the wrongs done to Mr Mifsud at the time and commented that the Commissioner of the Police was duty bound to prevent the violation of the Constitution.

Mr Mifsud, told the court, he was beaten by Superintendents Psaila and Bonello in the presence of Deputy Commissioner Anthony Mifsud Tommasi, who was acting on behalf of Dr Pullicino.

Mr Justice Pace said everything showed that the two superintendents had enormous pressure to solve the prison escape and find the guilty person as soon as possible. This, he said, should never have led to such a treatment.

He noted how the Criminal Court acquitted Mr Mifsud even though he had signed a confession, albeit under threat. Mr Mifsud had spent three years in prison.

As a result of his experience, Mr Mifsud suffered from post traumatic stress disorder as certified by court experts who also quantified a disability of 40 per cent.

Mr Mifsud had asked the court to award him e1.16million (Lm500,000) in compensation, with Lm10,000 a year for 50 years.

Mr Justice Pace calculated that Mr Mifsud’s salary adjusted to this year’s levels multiplied by 37 years, with the disability taken into consideration amounted to e120,661.54 (Lm51,800).

However, given that the Constitution grants the judge to give a just remedy as the court deems fit, Mr Justice Pace ordered that the Commissioner of Police, Dr Pullicino and Superintendents Psaila and Bonello should pay the now 50-year-old Mr Mifsud e186,349.87 (Lm80,000).




27 Comments Comment

  1. Antoine Vella says:

    This horrible episode of the Golden Years should help Franco Debono and Jose Herrera (especially the latter) put things into perspective when they make a fuss about lawyers not being present during interrogation.

  2. Carmel Said says:

    Did this poor guy actually ever receive his money?

    • RJC says:

      So sick and tired to read how the PN has to (actually, is expected to) clean up the mess left by the MLP whenever it is in government.

      And we’re heading again that way unless we start waking up to reality. Go on. Give Joseph Muscat and his PL a chance, let them make a mess of it, there’s always the PN to clean it up afterwards

  3. Aunt Hetty says:

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120827/world/libyan-home-minister-resigns.434481

    Does anyone recal the resignation of a Socialist Mintoffian minister when the Curia building in Malta Cattolicissima was ransacked by the Workers’ Aristocracy?

  4. ciccio says:

    Every time I see one of these human rights cases being won, I regard the victim as a hero.

    This case is one of the best examples of how the Mintoff and Malta Labour Party governments trampled over our fundamental human rights without any shame.

    This is why we expect a very comprehensive apology from Joseph Muscat and his party for all the atrocities they committed or allowed to be committed while they were entrusted with governing the country.

    • anna caruana says:

      Are you saying Mintoff was a hero? He won his delimara case.

      • ciccio says:

        No. In that case the government of Malta was the victim.

      • Murdock2 says:

        No ciccio the victims where the People of Malta since the Government represents the people. The money was taken out of OUR pockets and not out of the politicians’ pockets.

  5. pg says:

    Has any miniister of Eddie’s Mimisters resign when Karen Grech was Killed during the Strike and when Eddie Stated that he know who killed her and Raymond caruana

    • Aesop. says:

      @PG
      Karen Grech was killed when Mintoff was prime minister.

      IF ANYTHING , IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE LABOUR MINISTERS THAT SHOULD HAVE RESIGNED FOR NOT SOLVING THE CASE BETWEEN 1977 (WHEN THE MURDER TOOK PLACE) AND 1987 (WHEN EDDIE BECAME PRIME MINISTER).

      Who was minister for the interior in 1977 and who were the chief investigators at the time ? Was there not some relationship between a Labour Minister at the time and one of the investigators?

    • Murdock2 says:

      pg if the Labour government was serious he would have ordered that idiot of a Police Commissioner to ensure that investigations were correctly undertaken and not left for the new PN administration. Yes we knew who did it but no one kept any evidence of the murder clues. The Mintoff police ensured that all clues were removed. So point your finger elsewhere instead of pointing them at those who lives those terrible times under the fascist rule of Dom Mintoff.

  6. The chemist says:

    Maybe Joe Grima can post something on his Facebook wall regarding this issue.

    Or maybe he can tell us to fuck ourselves and call us pedophiles (American spelling)?

    It must be hard for somebody like him, who spent years doing exactly as he pleased as one of Mintoff’s and KMB’s ministers, to cope with the fact that he’s thrashed regularly in a blog run by a woman who does not show fear of these socialist die-hards.

    Moviment gdid, my ass – same threatening behaviour and vocabulary. All they need now is the police force at their disposal, imbaghad inkunu fil-frisk.

  7. Horrible Mintoff Legacy says:

    How come Mintoff didn’t help this poor and vulnerable person? Wasn’t Mintoff a saviour who helped the poor and most vulnerable people in society? That’s what I was given to understand during these past few days. What do all those who idolise and revere Mintoff have to say about this case? Eh?

    • Min Jaf says:

      Mela ma qrajtx fuq l-episodju tar-ritratti fil-parlament. Kull ma mmorru aktar qed jidher li Lorry kien qed imexxi lil-Duminku mil-fifra.

  8. john says:

    If anybody deserved a gong it was Louis Bartolo.

    F’Gieh ir-Repubblika.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Louis Bartolo was the only person ever to utter a word of sense on Xarabank.

    • DVG says:

      Mr Bartolo was an acquaintance of my family and also a very good man. Fusellu on the other hand was a bully. Louis acted in self-defence and was acquitted of the charge of murder.

      People were petrified of this 5-foot tall American Mafia wannabe. So there you have it.

  9. Opinionist says:

    Mintoff was NEVER in favour of this unlike what u think…yes these are BAD things which are BAD whoever does them..laburisti jew nazzjonalisti…

    • Min Jaf says:

      Opinionist, apart from being Prime Minister, Mintoff was also Minister for Police at that time. He had twice the responsibility and twice the authority to prevent such flagrant abuse from the outset.

      The Mifsud case must be seen alongside the murder of Nardu Debono in police hands, the frame-up of Pawlu Busuttil and the subsequent plan and attempt by the police guarding him in hospital [fortunately thwarted at the last minute] to throw Pawlu out of a third floor window in a fake suicide that would have closed the Raymond Caruana killing case as well as other incidents of police abuse.

      Both Mintoff and his puppet successor KMB, consistently failed to put a stop to such incidents and, by condoning, were actually encouraging such abuse as a means of furthering their twisted political objectives.

      • Catsrbest says:

        The frame-up of Mr Busuttil was not the only one. I remember another infamous frame-up done to a very young man, whose name I forgot, but still remember his nick-name – which was ‘il-Banana’. I still remember it because I felt very sorry for the young man. If I remember correctly he was still in his teens – it must have been an unimaginable nightmare for him, poor soul.

  10. Ganna says:

    Pg, the case of Karen grech happenened when labour was in power. I tell you what I think, I might be wrong, but this is my opinion.

    If the police had a hint that the guy was nazzjonalist , you know that they would have done to him as they did to anthony mifsud , Pietru pawl Busitill and others. That’s why I belief that he was labour, and he must be somebody big that no action was taken against who him.

    • Spock says:

      I always wondered how come the culprit was not found between 1977 and 1987 when the Malta Labour Party was in government. The authorities could have easily checked the arrival and departures forms that were filled out by ”suspect ”passengers who travelled to and from Malta in the weeks preceeding the murder and immediately afterwards. Why did they not? Who were the investigators protecting?

  11. lola says:

    Dr.Joseph Muscat must disassociate himself from those who are writing on blogs to answer statements by bloggers.In its absence it means that he is approving.

  12. I KNOW HIM says:

    Mifsud the prison guard never recovered from the torture and has carried the psychological damage ever since, fighting for compensation.

    I know this man very well. He’s a very decent guy. I speak to him very often at Bert’s Take Away, Lower Merchant Street, Valletta.

    What you’re saying is the truth and nothing but truth.

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