The brothers say they don’t understand why the police
officer who killed their father has been released on bail while the man who
killed a police officer has been accused of murder.
The irony is
poignant. On October 30, Emanuel Malvina, 56, lost his life in a road accident
as a police vehicle trying to overtake another car hit him head on. The driver,
a police officer, was arrested but later released on bail. The police still
have not confirmed the charge against the officer who hasn’t been identified.
On July 26, Constable
Jules was fatally hit by a car while he was on duty. The young driver has been
charged with murder – a very unusual charge for a road accident – and is still
being held at Montagne Posee.
The children are
still mourning their father and say they are at a loss to understand the way
the police have treated this tragedy.
Ian Rose and Pascal
Malvina both confirmed to this newspaper that they have not once heard from the
police since their father’s death. “The last time we spoke to a police officer
was when they handed over our father’s body to us for burial”, they say.
The brothers state that a relative of the police officer involved
in the accident, had approached them to ask them to consider removing the case,
by speaking to an official at the Attorney General’s office.
“We don’t understand why he was released. Yet, the boy who
killed the police officer in July is still being held at Montagne Posee prison.
We hope the police officer will get the maximum penalty. All we want is justice
especially since it was a policeman who didn’t respect the Highway Code and
ultimately killed our father”, the brothers told this newspaper.
“The accident happened where there was an unbroken line on
the road – a sign that says clearly that there should be no overtaking. Why is
the police the only institution that gets away with not respecting the law?”,
they ask.
The boys are even
more aggrieved because they know that their father was generally very prudent
on the road. “If you went to Takamaka on foot, you might’ve reached there
before him!”, they say of their father.
Ian Rose also tells that the driver who killed his father is well
known to him. “He is about 74 years-old and he lives at La Misere and used to
be an officer with the National Guard Unit. I cannot understand why a person
his age would drive a police vehicle when I once approached this department for
a part-time job and they said they didn’t employ part-time personnel”.
Source:Today