[attach id=366674 size="medium"]Alfred Bugeja, il-Porporina.[/attach]

Alfred Bugeja, Il-Porporina, who is on a hunger strike in retaliation to disciplinary action after testing positive to heroin, spent €80 at the tuck shop yesterday and gave the items he bought to his wife, an inmate herself.

Mr Bugeja started his hunger strike on Friday after losing all his prison privileges as a result of the random drug test. He deemed the removal of his privileges discriminatory, insisting it was not true he tested positive.

Sources said the inmate, who has a long list of convictions, mainly theft-related, yesterday spent almost €80 on food and cigarettes from the Corradino Correctional Facility store.

Although he was seen leaving the tuck shop with a bag full of goods, a surprise visit in his cell only yielded a sealed Nesquik cereal bar, the sources said, adding the rest of the items had been passed on to his wife, who is also serving time.

Mr Bugeja has a criminal record 49 pages long. He was subjected to a random urine drug test on August 18 at Corradino Correctional Facility. The results of the test were sent to Mater Dei Hospital to have another opinion and traces of opiates were confirmed.

Mr Bugeja, 57, however insists that he had not consumed heroin, cocaine or cannabis while in prison.

According to prison practice, inmates who fail a drug test have their privileges withdrawn. These include contact visits, receiving food from relatives and work in the community.

The sources said Mr Bugeja was the only prisoner who tested positive to drugs.