The case of a 26-year-old convicted drug trafficker, housed for safety reasons in the juvenile wing of the Corradino prison after testifying against a former partner in crime, has raised questions regarding double standards in drug-related offences, as well as concerns that Malta’s Correctional Facilities are ill-equipped for the detention of vulnerable prisoners.
IC, 26 from Swieqi, was the key prosecution witness in the recent trial by jury of Godfrey Ellul, 59 from St Julian’s, who was convicted last month for possession of 1.2 kg of cannabis resin, sentenced to 18 years in prison and fined Lm18,000.
IC was himself convicted on 7 February 2007 for possession of 500g of cannabis resin and 282 ecstasy pills, as well as an unspecified amount of cocaine packaged in two sachets, under circumstances which suggested that the drugs were not for his personal use.
After taking into consideration the fact that he provided information leading to Ellul’s arrest, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli applied Article 29 of the criminal code and sentenced IC to serve an 18-month sentence, and to pay a fine of Lm1,000.
In return for his testimony, IC is now housed in YOURS (Young Offenders Unit Rehabilitation Services) despite being five years older than the stipulated age of 21, and is also allowed to attend University where he is enrolled in a BA Communications course.
These privileges fall within the parameters established by the Prison Regulations, which grant the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry the discretion to take exceptional decisions depending on particular circumstances.
But in this case, the decision was to house a convicted cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy pusher among young offenders, despite the fact that article 12(4) of the same prison regulations specify that: “Prisoners under 21 years of age shall be kept under conditions which take account of the needs of their age and protect them from harmful influences.”
A spokesman for the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry confirmed that IC is currently being held at YOURS, adding that the measure is intended to guarantee his safety. But while the privileges enjoyed by IC appear at a glance to be above board, his preferential treatment has been questioned within the prison community itself. This newspaper is reliably informed that IC’s situation has been raised during meetings between prisons director Sandro Gatt and the unofficial prisoners’ committee. Meanwhile, unofficial sources close to the prison administration, who spoke to MaltaToday on condition of anonymity, reveal another dimension to the affair.
“Having only one prison creates logistical problems. In other countries, individuals who testify against each other at various points in their criminal careers are normally kept separate, in different prisons in different parts of the country. In Malta, prison is a small, closed community, and there is no other facility these people can be transferred to.”
The same person explained that at present, there is a section of the Corradino prison reserved for particularly vulnerable cases. But this section only caters for one (maximum two) prisoners at any one time. In the past, it housed former commissioner of police Lawrence Pullicino, convicted for his part in the murder of Nardu Debono in 1980. Today, the same unit is reserved for convicted former judge Patrick Vella, currently serving a two-year sentence for corruption. “For obvious reasons you cannot put a drug trafficker in the same block as a former judge or police commissioner,” the same source said.
As a result, the juvenile section of the Corradino Correctional Facilities (CCF) often doubles up as a centre for vulnerable prisoners. But this only means that the safety of one particular individual takes precedence over that of the rest of the inmates.
In these cases, the same source explains that the decision will not have been taken lightly. “The decision to house an exceptional case in YOURS will have been taken only after psychological evaluation of the convict concerned.”

Drugs, weights and measures
Another aspect of the IC affair which has raised eyebrows regards the lack of consistency when it comes to sentencing in drug-related cases.
The leniency of IC’s sentence – 18 months and Lm1,000 for half a kilo of cannabis, 282 ecstasy pills and an undisclosed quanitity of cocaine – can easily be explained by his collaboration in the arrest of Godfrey Ellul, who already had a string of drug convictions to his name. Significantly, though, none of these were for drug trafficking. This in fact was pointed out during his trial last month, when Judge Joe Galea Debono specifically prohibited the prosecution from questioning Ellul on the subject of his drug trafficking past for lack of any convictions.
When sentenced to 18 years, Ellul was already serving out a 20-year sentence, reduced to nine years on appeal, for possession of 7.3 grammes of heroin. In both cases, the sentences were more than the prosecution actually asked for: a fact which may be accounted for by the notorious “emeralds” case, in which Ellul was previously acquitted of drug smuggling charges after claiming that he was under the impression the drugs found in his luggage were actually precious stones.
But while the law courts evidently compensated for what many believe to be a previous miscarriage of justice, other drug-related convictions in the past have been pointedly less harsh.
In November 2005, Raymond Gerada, 43, was found guilty of smuggling a sachet of heroin into in prison, where Gerada worked a prison warder. In passing judgement, magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera noted that Gerada “should have known better than to try to smuggle drugs into prison, especially considering his duty was to take care of the inmates and keep them away from a life of crime”. And yet, he only got two years.
On the same day, John Camilleri, 37 from Mosta, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay Lm15,000, after being found guilty of trafficking almost 1,000 ecstasy pills.
Sources within drug rehabilitation told this newspaper that the often glaring disparity between different cases depends on a number of factors, including:
1) Whether the case is heard in the Criminal or Magistrate’s Court;
2) The individual judge or magistrate who presides over the case;
3) Undisclosed negotiated agreements between defence and prosecution;
4) Previous failed convictions, or cases where it is known that a suspect is guilty of other offences but cannot be prosecuted for lack of evidence.
5) The nationality of the accused.