A white, battered prison car drew up before the Public Registry building in Merchants Street, Valletta, last Friday, before a probation officer, carrying a camera, got out of the front passenger seat and opened the back door.

Meryem Nilgun, 42, wearing a white wedding dress and styled hair, came out, accompanied by an impeccably suited Roberto Conte, 40. They made their way into the building to exchange wedding vows.

Mr Conte, an Italo-Maltese, is serving a prison sentence until 2015 for importing 10kg of cannabis back in 2004, while the new Ms Conte, from Turkey, was also jailed for bringing heroin into Malta in 2003. Their story is intrinsically tied with their prison sentences.

“We met in the prison van on the way back from court – I had just been given my sentence, and Meryem had just been back from her appeal,” Mr Conte recounted.

The couple spoke in the van, and started exchanging letters while in prison. But the two only became close two-and-a-half years later, when they both were supervising fellow inmates during community work at Playmobil. The friendship blossomed, leading them to the steps of Evans Building last Friday.

The last time Mr Conte appeared in the newspapers he was shielding his face from the cameras as he was escorted from court. On Friday, however, he found no problem with having his picture taken as the couple tied the knot.

The words “for better or for worse” take on a particular meaning, given the couple’s current condition.

Though they will be under the same roof – which has been the case in recent years – the newlyweds will not be living together for now. They are only allowed eight hours a month in each other’s company and 10 hours over the phone.

The couple are trying to obtain a transfer to detention in Italy, where the system allows them to start reintegration within society and also hold a job, with only one day a week spent in prison.

But despite their eagerness to leave the confines of Corradino, the couple spoke of their time in jail as a formative one where they learnt the value of the small things in life, repeating the cliché that “you don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it”.

They described prison officers as part of their family, and Ms Conte said she never met people who cared for her as much as some prison officials.

“Prison is not the end of (our) life. We believe we still have some things to live for in our future. That’s what’s important, and because of this we are here today,” Ms Conte said.

“You can be anywhere in the world,” she said, before her new husband butted in – “but freedom is in your heart”.

(The Sunday Times)

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