A dying prisoner serving time for murder has applied for a Presidential Pardon to be free to die with his family.

Salvu Gauci, 63, is suffering from terminal cancer. Sources said he was given the last rites this week and might have just weeks left to live.

In 2001, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for stabbing and killing his sister-in-law but, due to remission, which reduces sentences for good behaviour, only two years remain until he is released.

His family and fellow inmates have appealed for his release on television, through the programmes Bondi+ and Xarabank.

In fact, a number of prisoners have also offered to serve Mr Gauci's remaining time themselves.

The Xarabank team have also appealed for his release and called for solidarity to be shown and for a lesson to be learnt from the prisoners' gesture of offering to serve time on Mr Gauci's behalf.

Speaking to The Times, his sister Aida Gauci said she had still not received any concrete response, despite numerous phone calls to different authorities.

With a hopeless and resigned tone in her voice, she said time was running out and she did not know what else to do.

"He is there alone, between four walls, where no matter how loud he shouts, no one replies. The doctors have told us that there is no cure for him."

She sent an e-mail to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi earlier this month, explaining that her brother's cancer had spread to his bones and whole body and he was in a great deal of pain.

"He can't even walk up the few steps to the visitor's room to see his relatives," she said.

Her 28-year-old son is also sick and needs her to be around 24 hours a day.

"While hoping that you and your relatives have a good Christmas, I ask that you do something so that Salvu does not die alone in the Kordin prison, so that we could have a peaceful Christmas too," she said in her letter to the Prime Minister.

She added that according to the prison director, her brother had all the paperwork necessary to be let go but that his case had not yet been processed.

In response, Dr Gonzi said that this issue fell under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice so he forwarded the e-mail to the minister for a recommendation.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice told The Times that the inmate's case was "currently being assessed" and was being given its due importance, in the same way that all other Presidential Pardon petitions by inmates deserved consideration.

But Ms Gauci fears that, by the time the request is assessed, her brother will already have died.

Some of the relatives of Mr Gauci's victim, however, are wholeheartedly against the idea of his early release. Clearly still very hurt by the loss of his sister, Ms Kok's brother, Alfred Spiteri actually thinks 20 years was not enough in the first place.

"Of course, I don't agree with his release, I would have given him another 20 years on top of what he was given. He is a killer and killers should be just put away," he insisted. "The sooner he dies, the better."

Mr Gauci's murder case dates back to 1997 when he stabbed Anna Kok several times while she was walking in Ħamrun with his wife.

Ms Kok died 13 days later in hospital. During the trial it emerged that he killed her because he blamed her for his marital problems.

Four years later he was found guilty of wilful homicide by a jury, by six votes to three - the minimum valid verdict.

Another sister of the victim had taken the witness stand to say he was not a bad person or a danger to society.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com