Human rights, my foot

We Maltese (some of us, anyway) may not be entirely happy with the way our country is being run. In particular, it seems in my eyes that, after having done its damnedest to get us into the EU, the Nationalist government strongly resists any improvement in our way of life that results from EU membership.

But every now and then, we (i.e. those some of us that are not entirely happy) recover our sense of perspective, by means of a straightforward reminder:

There they were, most of the beautiful bunch who were ruling our country with, in the background, that picture of the Great Leader, which after so many years is still capable of ruining my day. And we thank God a million times that those days are truly over, and that our country is now governed by a normal, even if imperfect, set of politicians. The dinosaurs from the past were celebrating... would you believe it... the Al-Gaddafi prize for Human Rights, awarded to the ex Great Leader Dom Mintoff.

Just a handful of days later, we were reminded of one possible reason why Al-Gaddafi chose to award a Human Rights prize to Dom Mintoff. This is so typical of the human rights situation overseen by the great leader:

The Times, Thursday, 30th October 2008 - 14:24CET

Prison warder gets compensation for 1982 police torture

Former prison warder Anthony Mifsud was today awarded €186,349 in compensation after a court found that his human rights were violated by the police when he was beaten in a police cell.
The case goes back to 1982 when Mr Mifsud, then in his twenties, was arrested and questioned by the police following the escape of two prisoners - Louis Bartolo and Ahmed Khalil Habib - from the civil prisons.

He had subsequently been accused of corruption and complicity in the escape, but was acquitted after having been kept in jail for three years under preventive arrest.

Mr Mifsud had claimed that during his arrest, before being taken to court, he was tortured by (then) Superintendent Carmelo Bonello and Superintendent Joe Psaila, among others. He claimed he was repeatedly beaten and kicked to the extent that he started coughing up blood and could not eat.

He said the officers also put a gun to his head and threatened him unless he signed a confession.
The court found that the police officers had violated Mr Mifsud's fundamental rights not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. It ordered the Police Commissioner, former Police Commissioner Laurence Pullicino and former Supts Bonello and Psaila to pay total compensation of €186,349.