Prison inmates demand amnesty

Prison inmates are refusing to do any work in an action aimed at putting pressure on the authorities to grant them an amnesty on the occasion of Malta's entry into the European Union.

A spokesman for the Home Affairs Ministry said yesterday that inmates at the Corradino Correctional Facility normally carry out duties such as cooking, baking bread and carpentry, but most of them had downed their implements. The cooking was yesterday done by prison wardens. A call for an amnesty to mark membership of the EU was recently made by the voluntary organisation Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl, which helps prisoners and their families.

Peppi Azzopardi, the television presenter, followed suit, and the sentiment seems to have spread among the inmates.

But the calls have also been followed by expressions of outrage from victims of crime.