Hot on the heels of press reports that prison inmate Leli Camilleri, ‘il-Bully’, acted as a middleman on behalf of inmates, Police Superintendent Sandro Gatt – the director of the Corradino Correctional Facility – has submitted a formal request to be reassigned to the Police Corps.
A Department of Information statement yesterday announced that the Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs had accepted the request.
His resignation came on Monday, a day after the ministry launched a probe into the prison director’s practice of having Camilleri act as intermediary for Dutch inmate Perry Ingumar Toornstra, the failed prison escapee who is now at the centre of allegations concerning prison guard abuse.
Camilleri is a convicted drug trafficker, serving 35 years for planting a bomb outside the home of Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Cassar.
Prison director Sandro Gatt himself admitted to The Sunday Times that Camilleri’s role was more or less standard procedure in prison.
Another prisoner, Tunisian Mohsen Mosbah, took care of Arab prisoners’ complaints.
Even the former chairman of the prison board Mario Felice was quoted as saying that Camilleri “leads a very prominent role in the prison. He enjoys a lot of things which others do not, including access to the prison director...”
Police Inspector Abraham Zammit, the prison’s deputy director, was appointed agent director at Corradino.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has also appointed Mr Emanuel Cassar to head an independent board to investigate reports on alleged shortcomings at the prisons.
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