A police officer was caught on camera shoving a dark-skinned pedestrian onto a quiet street and then beating him to the ground until two other officers intervened, a court heard on Wednesday. 

Details of that violent episode emerged in a court hearing concerning three police officers who stand accused of abducting foreign nationals and then assaulting them. 

Constables Rica Mifsud Grech, 22, Luca Brincat, 20 and Jurgen Falzon, 24 are alleged to have “randomly” selected migrants off the streets, taken them to secluded spots and then beating and abandoning them. 

The allegations came to light when they were flagged by three fellow police officers at the Ħamrun police station. 

IT expert Keith Cutajar took the witness stand on Wednesday, telling the court how he analysed electronic devices belonging to the three accused, as well as CCTV footage from various spots close to the areas where the alleged violence took place. 

One such video clip was taken from a warehouse on Triq it-Tigrija, Marsa and showed a police car driving up alongside a dark-skinned man who was walking along the pavement.

An officer then gets out and approaches the man on the rather quiet street.

The policeman first speaks to the man but then suddenly the incident evolved “into a rather alarming aggression,” said the witness.

The footage shows the officer suddenly pushing the migrant into the middle of the road and punching him. The alleged victim fell to the ground, Cutajar told the court. 

Stills from that footage taken from various angles showed two other officers move in to stop their colleague from continuing with the violence. 

The description of that episode prompted some objections by the defence, who argued that the expert was not meant to comment but simply to report. 

“That was part of the brief,” Cutajar replied, as presiding magistrate Joseph Mifsud intervened, directing the witness to stick to the facts. 

Bodycams switched off

The court also heard that bodycams worn by the accused had been switched off at certain key points. 

Seven hours of footage recorded between September 5 and 6 appeared to indicate a series of events.

“Yet when some action appeared to be about to happen, the bodycams were switched off, or one was on and the other was off,” said the witness.

“Those cameras were meant to be on all the while during police work,” the expert pointed out. 

On the same day of his appointment, Cutajar also seized the “trip book,” namely, a document recording movements of the police vehicle that was most frequently used in the Ħamrun district. 

There appeared to be a lack of logging when such incidents were allegedly involved. There were also “lacunae”(gaps) in the data tracking system, he said. 

Asked by lawyer Dean Hili to explain such gaps, the expert said that the car had some technical fault which had been flagged but had not yet been solved. 

Electronic devices were also seized, but the expert was not given all the device passwords. 

He had managed to extract cloud chats and voice messages shared among the three co-accused.

Data analysis was complete except for certain devices which were found to have a fault.

Under authorization by the inquiring magistrate, Cutajar had managed to fix all devices except for one, an IPhone model in respect of which he had placed an order to purchase parts from abroad. 

The witness presented his report which documented all the items, piecing together the “jigsaw puzzle” with further data from service providers. 

At the end of Wednesday’s session, Magistrate Mifsud upheld a request to vary bail conditions. 

All three co-accused were now allowed to go to Ħamrun, so long as they did not go to the police station. 

The prosecution’s main witnesses had testified and all accused had abided by bail conditions so far. 

They were also granted an extension of curfew hours, permitting them to go back home at 11:00pm instead of 8:00pm and at 1:00am on Christmas and New Year’s Eve. 

The case continues. 

Inspectors Joseph Mercieca and Omar Zammit prosecuted, assisted by AG lawyer Kaylie Bonnett.Lawyers Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili are counsel to Mifsud Grech.Lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb are counsel to Brincat.Lawyer Edmond Cuschieri is counsel to Falzon.