25% of prisoners awaiting judgement - study

One of every four inmates at Corradino Correctional Facilities is under preventive arrest awaiting judgement, a study conducted by the prison advocacy NGO Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl has found.

The study, presented this evening during a conference organised by the NGO, found that 83 per cent of them had never been in prison before and almost half never requested bail.

A fourth of them had been granted bail but could not raise the money for it so they had to be remanded in custody.

The study found that almost half of the inmates awaiting judgement had been in preventive arrive for more than six months, 21 per cent between a year and two years, 13 per cent between two and four years and three per cent for more than four years.

The research found that while 60 per cent of them had a private lawyer, the remaining 40 per cent used legal aid. Most of those using legal aid were foreigners.

NGO director George Busuttil noted that judgement took a long time to be given so people found innocent after spending a long time under preventive arrest should be compensated.

He said that many foreigners, especially Africans, needed much more support since they were forgotten by the system.

Mr Busuttil said that the legal aid system was not working and led to many people having to suffer. One accused, for example, appeared in court more than 30 times but his legal lawyer never showed up.

Was justice for the poor, different than that for the rich, he asked.