Raphael Vassallo
Perry Ingumar Toornstra, the 32-year-old Dutch national who was allegedly beaten at the Corradino Correctional facility (CCF) last week after attempting to escape, has been forced to find alternative legal representation after the lawyer appointed by the court failed to show up for his hearing.
Officials at the Dutch embassy yesterday confirmed that Toornstra turned to his country’s diplomatic mission for help to find another lawyer, while sources close to CCF told this newspaper that “this sort of thing happens all the time”.
“Lawyers on legal aid are notorious for ‘dumping’ their clients, especially foreigners in prison,” one prison employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said yesterday. Elsewhere, prisoners’ rights watchdog Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl has on numerous occasions shed light on this issue, demanding a reform in the way lawyers are assigned to clients in detention. Efforts to identify the defaulting lawyer yesterday proved futile. Likewise, it is not yet known whether Toornstra’s legal aid will also relinquish the salary that comes with the public post.
Perry Ingumar Toornstra is currently serving a 15-year sentence for trying to import into Malta 4,000 ecstasy tablets and a number of LSD tabs in 2000. He will now be facing additional charges for attempting to escape from the Corradino Correctional Facility on Saturday 9 August, when the Dutch national managed to give his prison escort the slip for long enough to run, still handcuffed, into Paola main square.
Toornstra was re-arrested some six minutes later, and allegedly subjected to violent treatment on his re-entry to prison. Four prison warders have already been charged with assaulting and injuring Toornstra. These are Francis Debono, 41 of Safi, Francis Meli, 38 of Birzebbuga, Daniel Cuschieri, 27 of Paola and George Falzon, 27 of Qormi. All four were remanded in custody, and are currently housed in the Floriana lock-up for their own safety.
Apart from casting a spotlight on the sometimes grim realities of life behind bars, Toornstra’s case has also highlighted a number of instances of apparent discrimination against foreign prisoners at the Corradino Correctional Facility.
MaltaToday has been informed that Toornstra is considered a “dangerous” prisoner – a category which indiscriminately groups all foreign inmates, except for those married to Maltese spouses, or who otherwise reside in Malta.
Asked to account for this curious definition of the word “dangerous”, a prison official explained that foreign inmates with no connections to Malta are considered likelier candidates to stage escape attempts – as in fact Toornstra did two weeks ago.
However, while there may be some truth to this observation, MaltaToday is informed that this scenario is often used to deny foreign inmates certain privileges made available to their Maltese counterparts.
“Dangerous” inmates – according to the above classification system – are less likely to be considered eligible for (for instance) drug rehabilitation programmes than Maltese prisoners.
This discriminatory practice was highlighted by the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in its 2001 report on Maltese detention centres. With specific reference to CCF, the report recommended “the possibility of allowing foreign access to drug rehabilitation programmes on an equal footing with the rest of the prison population...”
Government’s reply only confirmed the discriminatory status quo: “Foreign prisoners, in principle, do share the same opportunities as the Maltese in attending drug rehabilitation programmes. However, such requests by foreign inmates are treated cautiously since in reality the risk of escape is higher so as to avoid deportation at the termination of their sentence. However, foreign inmates married to Maltese citizens, or those not to be deported upon termination of their sentence, were given the opportunity to attend these programmes...”

rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt