Police bodycam footage has shed light on the build-up to a brawl in Ħamrun which landed five people in prison facing charges of assaulting police officers.
The footage was shown in open court earlier this month and is from the bodycam worn by police officer Clive Mallia, one of the two officers injured in the ensuing fracas.
Footage of the exchange spread rapidly across social media platforms on Wednesday.
It shows Mallia speaking to brothers Elton and Kurt Borg as they issue a parking ticket to Elton Borg’s badly parked car.
Mallia faced hours of questioning about the interaction shown in the footage, with defence lawyers arguing he spoke arrogantly and provoked their clients by being dismissive, swearing and mockingly repeating words back to them.
What the bodycam footage shows
The video begins with Borg asking the officer to “Speak to me with respect” [Kellimni bħan-nies].
It is not known what prompted that request, as the bodycam's audio only begins around 25 seconds of the clip, after what appears to be Mallia's hand reaches up to the device. However, Mallia testified that he initially told Borg "So you're removing it [the car] because you saw us? [Issa ġej tneħħiha għax rajt lilna?]
In the audible footage, Borg is asked for his driving licence. After he fetches and hands it over, his brother Kurt joins the interaction.
Tensions rise when Kurt Borg opens the car’s boot for the officer.
“Bloody hell, you’re such a good lawyer” [Ostja, kemm int avukat tajjeb”], the officer tells him. When testifying, Mallia said the word “ostja” had “slipped out”.
The interaction continues to heat up as the officer instructs Kurt Borg not to touch him.
“I’m no pushover,” [Mela ħsibtni tan-nejk], he tells Borg.
The brothers then complain to each other about the way the police officer is speaking to them, with one telling the other he’s being spoken to “like an animal”[qisni annimal].
“I opened the boot for you to check it, sir,” Kurt Borg tells him. The officer replies he “doesn’t care” [x’jimpurtani], and at that point the interaction grows more heated, with men speaking over one another.
All the while, the other officer on duty appears to be trying to de-escalate the growing tensions.
Borg appears to step on the officer and then move back, and when he asks the officer “what are you saying” [x’inti tgħid], the officer repeats that phrase back to him.
While testifying, Mallia confirmed that he had mockingly repeated Borg's words back to him.
At that point, Elton Borg tells the officer he has three witnesses who have heard how he is speaking to them. The group moves closer together, hands are raised and the scuffle begins.
At that point, the bodycam footage leaked to social media ends. Legal sources told Times of Malta that the footage shown in open court also included a subsequent section, when the officers were attacked.
What happened after the video ended?
Videos of the subsequent brawl taken by eyewitnesses showed the two officers being set upon by a group of people, as others looked on.
Those videos, which were shared to social media within hours of the Saturday evening fight, showed officers punched, pulled and slammed to the ground.
One of the officers suffered a fractured nose while the other had scratches on his neck and nose.
Five people were charged in connection with the fight, with prosecutors saying they also intended to prosecute a sixth – the Borg brothers’ father – separately.
All five have so far been denied bail and are being held in custody.
Apart from questioning Officer Mallia’s demeanour in the run-up to the interaction, defence lawyers have also emphasised that the other officer’s bodycam was never recovered from the fight scene.
The officer in question testified that it fell off in the altercation, returned to him and then was lost a second time.
Defence lawyers say the footage on that second bodycam is “crucial” to their case, as it will shed further light on the exchange that preceded the physical violence.