The Magistrates' Court this morning ordered the prison authorities to immediately release Ladislav Mironich, 28 from Georgia, after finding he was being illegally detained.

Mr Mironich yesterday was handed a 13-month jail term for stealing a laptop and two mobile phones and holding three people against their will. He filed an appeal.

Despite having been held for 19 months in preventive custody, he was not released from the prison and thus filed an application in court.

His lawyer, Joseph Brincat, said this amounted to illegal arrest.

Dr Brincat said that his client had served double the legitimate expectations of punishment in such cases and it was his right to proceed to appeal. That he had been kept in detention was a violation of his human right.

In connection with the same case, Dmitriy Makhmoudov, 22, was condemned to a 14-month jail term.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.