Foreign prisoners are “100 per cent right” to complain about the legal aid system and the Government is looking into making the service more efficient, Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Owen Bonnici said yesterday.
A group of 18 foreign inmates at the Corradino Correctional Facility, who went on hunger strike last week, complained that legal aid lawyers were not protecting their rights and sometimes they even failed to turn up in court to represent them.
Dr Bonnici told Times of Malta that, by the end of July, the justice reform commission, headed by retired Judge Giovanni Bonello, will be presenting him with a report that will tackle legal aid, among other subjects.
When he became Parliamentary Secretary in March he was informed that Mr Justice Joseph Camilleri was in the process of compiling a report on the legal aid system. This report, he said, had recently been completed and handed over to the justice reform commission.
The inmates’ hunger strike started on June 17 at about 11am and was called off the following day after a meeting with the prison director, where they were told their demands would be discussed.
A spokeswoman for the Home Affairs Ministry said the inmates had four main requests: that they are given more than 100 days amnesty; that they serve their prison sentence in their country of origin; that court-imposed fines are revoked; and that the legal aid system is improved.
The spokeswoman said the ministry was discussing the prisoners’ requests regarding the completion of their jail term overseas and the legal aid issue.
The prisoners were told they would not be given a longer amnesty. The inmates argued that revoking court fines was done in other jurisdictions. The ministry informed them it would look into the options but this did not necessarily mean it would be negotiable.
In a three-page letter received by Times of Malta before the strike, the inmates complained that they were treated differently to Maltese prisoners. They also complained about the lack of integration programmes for foreign inmates and the excessive long jail terms that became even longer when hefty fines were converted into time behind bars.
George Busuttil, director of NGO Mid-Dlam Għad-Dawl that works with inmates, recently lambasted the legal aid system.
“It’s a shambles and it’s creating a two-tier justice system. Those who can afford a lawyer get a proper shot at justice. Those who can’t, don’t,” he had said.