Two police officers charged with involuntary homicide of arrested man

Two police officers were on Monday charged in court of the involuntary homicide of a man who was under arrest as part of drug investigations after having initially been stopped for a traffic infringement.
Inspector Stacy Gatt, 28 and sergeant Karl Nikolai Vella Cassia, 35 both pleaded not guilty to the involuntary homicide of Richmond Tong, who suffered a seizure at police headquarters in June 2020. Vella Cassia was separately charged with giving false testimony during the magisterial inquiry into the death.

At the start of the compilation of evidence the court was told that Tong was  “chewing something” when he was stopped by a police patrol for a traffic violation. 
The 35-year-old Mtarfa resident was stopped just a short distance, “a one or two minute drive” from the Rabat police station, said prosecuting Inspector Daryl Borg when testifying.  
It was around 3.40am on June 24, 2020 when an officer at the Valletta police station received a call from the headquarters lock up, informing him that a man who was being held under arrest needed medical assistance. By 4am, the man was certified dead.
Mere hours before, the man, subsequently identified as Tong, had appeared to be...