Palestinian hits out at AFM for sending him to Mount Carmel, not hospital after riot

Palestinian national Magdi Mohammed Ismael told Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona that Armed Forces officers had taken him and four other migrants detained at Safi Detention Centre to Mount Carmel Hospital, rather than to Mater Dei Hospital, despite needing treatment for smoke inhalation during a riot at the centre in June 2010.

Ismael was giving evidence in a case where a fellow migrant, Madur Mavadi, is charged with causing the fracas where a number of mattresses were set alight in protest at their lengthy detention.

The incident developed in a compound where migrants from the Maghreb were being separately held from African nationals.

While the army intervened and evacuated the migrants from the thick smoke which engulfed the compound, only the accused remained inside, claiming that he wanted to die inside.

But when he was asked as to what treatment he received following the incident, Ismael told Magistrate Micallef Trigona that he was sent to Mount Carmel Hospital "for nothing" and was made to spend five days there.

"My friends too were also sent to Mount Carmel, and not to Mater Dei," the migrant claimed.

Giving evidence in the same case, AFM Capt. Mark Anthony Borg who was responsible for the Safi Detention Centre told the court that the accused was saved thanks to the bravery of Sergeant Mark Dimech, "who entered the burning compound and brought him out."

Sgt. Dimech is the same officer who is currently facing charges for the murder of an escaped Malian migrant last August.

According to Capt. Borg, the accused refused to come out of the compound which he allegedly set on fire, repeatedly claiming that he wanted to die in there.

Capt. Borg added that when Civil Protection personnel were called to extinguish the fire, they refused to evacuate the accused on the basis that they do not go in to extract persons who are violent.

"On hearing this Sgt. Dimech, rushed into the burning building alone and brought the accused out safe and sound," Capt Borg said, adding that if it weren't for his bravery the migrant would have died.

Lawyer Joseph Giglio who at the time of Capt. Borg's testimony was inside Magistrate Micallef Trigona's court room, turned to the media present commenting, "and they have the face to accuse Sgt. Dimech of being a racist."

Giglio is defending Sgt. Dimech in the homicide case.