Police commissioner Michael Cassar has defended police action in the case of a 36-year old Dutch woman who had to inspect her own excrement after suspicions she was carrying drugs, which she described as “inhuman and degrading”.

Times of Malta yesterday reported the humiliation felt by Jennifer Koster, a Dutch woman born in the Dominican Republic, who is a regular visitor to Malta to meet her local partner.

She said she decided to speak up after she felt routine police checks went too far. She had to endure a vaginal examination and was then given a laxative and asked to search her own excrement through a yellow plastic bag.

The police commissioner stressed the police did not act in an abusive manner. “I assure you that nothing, absolutely nothing, was done beyond what is permitted by law. If anyone stresses the need for that, it’s me,” Mr Cassar said, adding the police had a warrant.

Yet her lawyers will be filing a constitutional case on her behalf for having been made to suffer inhuman and degrading treatment and possible illegal arrest.

Ms Koster said she felt “treated like a dog” when the police arrested her soon after she landed in Malta and took her to hospital to be internally searched for drugs. She said she was used to her luggage being searched for drugs whenever she came but she felt this time the police crossed the line.

Ms Koster explained that for the past three years she had been coming to Malta regularly to visit her partner, Charlie Zammit, a taxi driver whom she met when she came on holiday.

Almost every time she came to Malta she was stopped by Customs officials, who searched her luggage and made a copy of her passport. On one occasion she was also taken into a room and strip-searched.

Yet when she arrived last week she passed through customs and was later stopped by three police cars on the way home. The couple were handcuffed, she was taken to Mater Dei Hospital and her partner was taken, in another car, to his home, which was thoroughly searched.

When she was at hospital, two female officers watched her every move, including her bowel movements which were searched. She said she cooperated all the way until she was told to search her own excrement, at which point she requested a lawyer but was told it was too late.

The police commissioner confirmed it was female officers who accompanied her at all times, in line with procedures, “and there are very good reasons why that was necessary”.

He stressed appropriate action was taken in the course of an investigation in order to establish facts. He said he could not divulge details because he was bound by law not to do so. If he could, things would be easier for everyone to understand, he said.

Human rights lawyer Neil Falzon said the fact the police conducted a body search was not shocking and generally authorised as long as police procedures, both on paper and in their implementation, were in line with international human rights standards.

He cautioned this must not be done in any kind of discriminatory manner. “Reasonable suspicion should not be exclusively linked to a person’s nationality. The police should have in place a system of ensuring all the required criteria for assessing reasonable suspicion are applied in an indiscriminate manner and that a record is kept of how they are applied in each individual case,” Dr Falzon said.

He also said a complaint by an individual should not be taken lightly and an internal assessment should at least ensure that at no stage were her rights violated.

Code of ethics

The police code of ethics is based on three main principles:

• No one is above the law;

• Human dignity is to be respected at all times in all circumstances;

• The fundamental and human rights of all individuals must be respected and protected.