Amnesty concerns

Amnesty International have issued a public statement about the investigation of incidents at the Hal-Safi Detention Centre. It comments about the 'excessive use of force and ill-treatment of detainees by armed forces'. Amnesty is urging the Maltese government to 'bring the perpetrators to justice in proceedings that meet international fair trial standards and to give the victims an effective remedy, including compensation':

Amnesty International is deeply concerned about the ill-treatment and excessive use of force by Maltese authorities against individuals held at the Hal-Safi barracks detention centre on 13 January 2005 as described in the report (published 12 December 2005) of the results of the investigation of the Board of Inquiry appointed by the Maltese government to investigate the incident. The Board of Inquiry found, among other things, the army officers assigned to control the Hal-Safi detention centre did not have sufficient training for this type of work. It found certain members of the armed forces did not understand their role in supporting the principal action to coerce the protesters back into the detention centre. It also found there was an overall lack of coordination between soldiers in the execution of their plan to subdue the protesters. The inquiry found that each of these factors led to several members of the armed forces applying excessive force “exaggerated and out of proportion in the circumstances” in their attempts to force the protesters back into the detention centre...

Background from MaltaMedia; more by Sharon Spiteri and Majistral