The Police Commissioner has announced that “no evidence of criminal acts” was found regarding the abuse at the Kordin Correctional Facility. With all due respect, this is not enough.
The Ombudsman’s report revealed systematic mismanagement, degrading treatment, intimidation, arbitrary punishment, and serious administrative failures in the prison. Vulnerable people who have been deprived of their liberty are entrusted to the State, and the State has failed them.
When findings of this gravity emerge, a conclusion reached behind the closed doors of the police does not inspire anyone’s confidence. On the contrary, it raises even more questions.
We cannot ignore the uncomfortable reality that both the Police Commissioner and the Prison Director ultimately fall under the same minister. In a structure like this, the public cannot simply rely on the promise that nothing wrong happened and that, had it happened, the Police would have pursued it without fear or favour.
We are not accusing the Police of acting in bad faith. We are asking them to demonstrate that they acted in good faith. The public deserves answers to these basic questions:
- Was a magisterial inquiry opened?
- Did the police interview the same witnesses that the Ombudsman heard?
- Was a full review carried out of the findings and evidence in the Ombudsman’s possession?
- Did the investigators seek the opinion of the Attorney General?
- Did the investigators examine allegations of retaliatory punishment and degrading treatment?
If the State cannot answer these questions, we cannot be assured that justice has been done.
This is not about the past. This is aimed at preventing abuse in the future. External oversight of closed institutions — prisons, detention centres, psychiatric care facilities — must be independent, not vertically dependent on the same political authority that is being investigated.
Prison residents are under the total control of the State and therefore bear the State’s full responsibility. Human dignity is not lost the moment someone is locked up.
Repubblika calls for:
- Full transparency on how the investigative process was conducted;
- Publication of the investigative measures taken and the legal basis for closing the inquiry; and
- Reform that guarantees independent external oversight whenever allegations arise concerning institutions falling under the ministry that controls the police.
In a democracy it is not enough to say “we found no crime”. The public needs to see that everything necessary was done — especially when the alleged victims have no way of speaking for themselves.