A former Animal Welfare Department employee has filed a constitutional case alleging he was tortured by the police and suffered inhumane and degrading treatment.
Eugene Galea, 54, from Lija, also complained that his human rights had been breached when he was tried twice for the same crime.
Mr Galea said he found himself in a state of double jeopardy: he had been fined €100 for failing to turn up in court and then charged again for breaching bail conditions over the same thing, for which he received a two-month jail term. This meant he was being punished twice for the same crime, he argued.
Mr Galea is facing charges of harassing Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes and driving dangerously.
He said that after being arrested for breaching bail, he was beaten by police officers and subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.
He said he was then arraigned and jailed but Deputy Police Commissioner Ray Zammit, in charge of the prison, failed to investigate his injuries.
Mr Galea said he also formally asked Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit to retrieve CCTV images from Mater Dei Hospital where he was taken by the police and where he claimed the beating took place.
On the bail conditions breach, Mr Galea said that, during one of the sittings in the case against him, he was fined €100 for contempt of court after he failed to turn up.
He said his lawyer at the time, Victor Bugeja, had confirmed with Police Inspector Sarah Magri that, once he had been fined, the matter would stop there. However, a few days later, the officer arrested him and charged him over the same failure to appear in court.
The application was filed against the Attorney General, the Police Commissioner and Ms Magri.
Lawyer Jason Grima signed the application.