CCTV footage shows how police carried out heavy-handed arrest of woman

CCTV recording showing a group of police officers manhandling and arresting a mother and her son inside their San Gwann shop was today exhibited in court, in a libel suit filed against MaltaToday by police superintendent Sharon Tanti, who at the time ran the St Julian's district.

Balzan said that communication between the media and the police under the former commissioner of police had been "practically non-existent" and that no communication took place on the story before it was published.

The story in question gave a blow-by-blow account of the arrest of Rose Parnis in her shop Rovic Ironmongery, while another opinion piece noted that Tanti herself had come in for criticism in the media for mishandling of arrests and detaining individuals. "The article in question was an opinion piece written by myself. I have a right to express my opinion particularly on matters of public interest," Balzan said.

At around 4pm on 7 October 2009, seven police officers were dispatched from the St Julian's police station to arrest Rose Parnis, then 44, for failing to appear for a court sitting. But Parnis argued that she had not received the summons. It later transpired the summons was delivered to a residence that did not match the woman's ID card details.

The police demanded that Parnis to accompany them to the police station. Her son and daughter pleaded with them not to take their mother away as she had been recently hospitalised due to a heart condition. According to the events as seen on CCTV, the police grabbed the 16-year old boy by the neck and dragged him away.

Upon being surrounded by police and witnessing how her son was manhandled, Rose fainted to the floor. After regaining her senses she called her lawyer but another officer shoved her into the shop's shelving units, and holding her by the neck, handcuffed her. She was then taken to the police vehicle under the escort of seven officers.

"I believe the presence and behaviour of those seven officers was way out of proportion," Saviour Balzan said.

Balzan described that the incident in the CCTV footage shows two officers talking to Parnis. Moments later the officers are seen using their mobile phones but at no instance is the woman seen assaulting the offiers. The second DVD shows more officers turning up inside the shop. Superintendent Sharon Tanti is not seen in any part of the exhibited DVDs.

"Nevertheless, something good did come out of this case as following the incident the woman and her former husband who had been going through separation procedures got back together, when he felt partly responsible for what happened to his wife," the witness explained.

Parnis had also submitted a report to the police internal investigations unit.