Report finds "generally positive state of affairs" for detained persons

A report drawn up by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has recommended that the government should take out of service disused police cells, and remedy the shortcomings in the cells which are to remain in use.

In its reply, the government is saying that an upgrading and refurbishing programme of police stations was taken in hand this year and that all disused cells were being taken out of service.

On ill-treatment, the report says that the vast majority of people deprived of their liberty interviewed during the CPT's mission to Malta made no allegations of ill-treatment in police custody.

Despite this generally positive state of affairs, certain information emerged suggesting that heightened vigilance was necessary to prevent ill treatment and to ensure the safety and physical integrity of people detained by the police.

The report, presented to the government last December, but released only yesterday, is based on a visit to Malta by a delegation from May 13 to May 18 of last year.

During a press conference yesterday, Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg also released an interim report prepared by the government and which has now been presented to the CPT.

Dr Borg - who served as a member on the CPT prior to his cabinet appointment - said the government would also be submitting a full report in the coming months to the CPT.

Dr Borg said the CPT report was confidential and the government was not obliged to publish it.

He said the government was satisfied that the degree of cooperation received by the CPT's delegation had been described in their report as excellent.

He said the government was also pleased that the CPT had acknowledged that various important recommendations made following the 1995 visit had been effectively implemented by the local authorities.

Dr Borg said the report mentioned the significant improvements which had been made and that this illustrated the government's efforts to improve the situation in this regard particularly through the adoption of recommendations made by the CPT. Another positive indicator in this regard was that year after year, the government had continued to allocate substantial funds for capital expenditure to prisons.

Dr Borg said that despite these considerable improvements that were reflected in the "overall positive report" presented by the CPT, the government was aware that there was no room for complacency.

Indeed, the recommendations made by the CPT were being seriously considered by the authorities with a view to, as far as resources permitted, further improving the situation.

The prevention of cases of ill-treatment as well as the provision of safe and humane places of detention, with all due respect to the human rights and dignity of all detainees irrespective of nationality, colour, race or creed, had always been a top priority for the government and would remain so.

Dr Borg also said that any allegation of ill-treatment was always referred to police for investigation and if need be disciplinary action would be taken.

There were cases where such disciplinary action had to be taken. However, Dr Borg said that one had to appreciate that at the moment of arrest, a certain degree of subjective discretion had to be given to the police.

The minister stressed that the government and the competent authorities treated any allegation of ill-treatment with the utmost seriousness.

The CPT report says that conditions of detention were found to be rather variable in the different police cells.

Most were sparsely furnished (containing only beds, mattresses and bedding) and devoid of natural light (the sole exception being St Julian's), but were generally well ventilated.

By far the best conditions were observed at the relatively new premises of Valletta police station, which contained two comparatively large, clean and well ventilated cells with adequate artificial lighting and integral sanitation. In contrast many cells in other localities were rather cramped, dim or neglected in terms of their state of repair and hygiene. Worst in this respect were the cells of the stations in St Julian's and Sliema, the latter station having urine-stained, foul-smelling bedding in one of its cells.

The report recommends that the Maltese authorities should take out of service definitively those cells which have fallen into disuse, and remedy the shortcomings in the cells which are to remain in use.

On Ta' Kandja police complex at Siggiewi where illegal immigrants are detained, the report said it had found a miserable situation where the premises - particularly the sanitary facilities - were characterised by filth and disrepair, as well as an utter absence of purposeful activities for detainees, whose stays could range from a few days to periods longer than two years.

It said it would like to receive confirmation that the new detention facility at Hal Far had become operational and that immigration detainees are no longer being held at Ta' Kandja Police Complex. On this point, Dr Borg said that Ta' Kandja had been completely shut down but had to be used again because of the large flow of illegal immigrants being detained in Malta at present.

On ill-treatment, the report says that the vast majority of people deprived of their liberty interviewed during the CPT's mission to Malta made no allegations of ill-treatment in police custody.

Despite this generally positive state of affairs, certain information emerged suggesting that heightened vigilance was necessary to prevent the ill-treatment and to ensure the safety and physical integrity of people detained by the police.

At the outset of the visit, the government referred them to a case involving three foreign nationals who had alleged that they had been beaten by police officers at the Police General Headquarters at Floriana in June, 1999. As a result of those allegations, three police officers were indicted on charges of abuse of authority but were subsequently acquitted by the court.

The report says that there were few allegations of police ill-treatment made to the CPT delegation directly by people detained in several of the establishments visited.

The allegations included accounts of being punched, kicked, or struck with objects including revolvers or police radios, and were related both to the time of apprehension as well as to the time spent in a police station or lock-up.

In one case, the report said, a medical member of the delegation gathered information consistent with a detainee's account of being punched in the back of the head at the time of his apprehension at the airport on the previous day. Upon examination, the person concerned was found to display an elongated, horizontal and slightly discoloured soft swelling to the back of the head with an abrasion in the middle. The report said that most of the other allegations received pre-dated the delegation's visit by at least several months and any marks which might have been caused by the kinds of ill-treatment alleged would almost certainly have healed in the meantime.

The report says that while the information does certainly not imply that there was a pervasive problem of police ill-treatment in Malta, it does represent a subtle yet disconcerting departure from the situation found during the CPT's previous visits in 1990 and 1995.

Steps should be taken without delay to thwart any potential development of regressive attitudes concerning the treatment of detainees. Consequently, the CPT recommends that senior police officers regularly remind their subordinates that ill-treatment is not acceptable and that it would be the subject of severe sanctions.

Furthermore, the report recommends that, whenever an apprehended person brought before a judge alleges ill-treatment by the police, the judge immediately request a forensic medical examination of the person concerned and bring the matter to the attention of the relevant authorities, irrespective of whether the person concerned bears visible injuries.

Moreover, even in the absence of an express allegation of ill-treatment, a judge should request a forensic medical examination and inform the relevant authorities whenever there were grounds to believe that an apprehended person brought before him could have been the victim of ill treatment.

It also said the existence of effective mechanisms to tackle police misconduct was an important safeguard against the ill-treatment of people deprived of their liberty. The imposition of appropriate disciplinary and/or criminal penalties in those cases where evidence of wrongdoing emerges can have a powerful dissuasive effect on police officers who might otherwise be minded to engage in ill treatment.

The report also says that none of the police stations visited was equipped with a call system. It recommends that steps should be taken to ensure that all police cells are adequately monitored. Preferably, they should be equipped with call systems, and the authorities should explore the possibility of introducing closed circuit camera monitoring of custody areas.

The report says that the vast majority of prisoners interviewed at the Corradino prison made no allegations of ill-treatment by prison or police staff. Indeed, many inmates characterised officers' treatment of them as correct. Nevertheless, certain information gathered by the delegation tended to mar the generally positive picture and would suggest the need for the authorities to be vigilant in this area.

It said that the Corradino prison had been the subject of an ambitious programme of reconstruction and renovation since its last visit in 1995. The most noteworthy changes have been the entry into service of a newly constructed young offences section and the construction of a separate block for remand prisoners. Contrary to the situation observed in certain parts of the prison during the previous visits, the report observed that the state of cleanliness throughout the establishment was satisfactory and that all of the cells visited were equipped with basic furnishings.

The report also said the delegation was pleased that the proportion of prisoners with work was increasing and improvements were made with regards to the provision of education.

When asked whether journalists should be able to see the prisons for themselves, Dr Borg said experience had shown that such exposure was not beneficial.