Police board inquiry into arraignment of innocent man held 'behind closed doors'

The independent inquiry by the Police board into the arraignment of a wrongly accused man will be held behind closed doors.

The declaration was made by judge emeritus Franco Depasquale himself, who explained that the law precluded the board from making its conclusions public.

It is now at the Minister's discretion to decide whether the report should be made public.

Set up 10 years ago, and always chaired by him, Depasquale explained the board was completely independent of the Police Force.

"We are like the Ombudsman of Police: we receive complaints by the police and the public about the police work and we investigate it. We put forward our recommendations and it would then be up to the Police Commissioner to implement them," Depasquale said.

The board, whose members include lawyer and Labour candidate David Farrugia Sacco, Victor Grupetta, Deandra Schembri and Keith Chetcuti, is regulated through the Police Act.

With Home Affairs Manuel Mallia abroad, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today asked the police board to start investigating the incident immediately.

Depasquale had in fact commented that he was in St Paul's Bay when he had to urgently convene the meeting, originally scheduled for Monday.

"The first person to be questioned was the Police Commissioner given that he's the one with the general information on who was on the case," Depasquale said, adding he doesn't feel this was going to be "a complicated case".