The Constitutional Court this morning reduced a fine imposed on the former Director of Prisons in 2006 for degrading treatment to former inmate Meinrad Calleja.

Calleja had pleaded that he had been treated in an inhumane and degrading manner in violation of his human rights and been kept in almost total isolation for eight months while under preventive custody in 1996. At the time he was accused of drug trafficking, and even though he was supposed to have been presumed innocent until proven guilty, he was placed in a division usually reserved for condemned prisoners and was denied his privacy , Mr Calleja said

The Constitutional Court, presided by Chief Justice Vincent de Gaetano, Mr Justice Joseph Camilleri and Mr Justice Joseph Filetti in reviewing the judgment, found that Mr Calleja had been treated in a degrading, but not inhumane manner.

The court said it was reducing the fine imposed on the director from Lm1,500 to Lm1,000 (€2,300)