A man who was told at the end of a 10-year prison term that he would still be kept in detention while deportation procedures were completed, flew into a rage, assaulted detention offices and was sentenced for a further two years as a result.
The prosecutors said Jason Feilazoo had injured several officers and threatened to kill them.
The court heard how Mr Feilazoo himself was injured in his struggle with the officers, and pepper spray was used twice.
"The court understands that the accused was really frustrated when he got to know that he was going to be kept in detention for a further period of time after having been released from prison after serving a ten-year term," Magistrate Joe Mifsud said.
"The way the Immigration Department handled this case in the sense that it only started working on the deportation procedures on the 1st April 2018, merely nine days before the accused's release from prison cannot be possibly lauded.
"This court is not the competent court to decide whether the accused’s rights were breached as a result of the way the Immigration Department handled this case. However, notwithstanding this scenario, the accused was not justified to act as he acted, more so when he was fully aware of how to seek redress bearing in mind that he already had other pending cases regarding alleged mistreatment in his regards," the magistrate said.
During the proceedings, Mr Feilazoo argued that he had come to Malta from Spain using normal travel documents. He said he had a residence permit in Spain and he was not an illegal immigrant.
Read: The struggles of foreign inmates who want to serve time back at home
Prosecutors said his residence permit in Spain had expired and Madrid had refused to have him back, meaning that he had to be deported.
In his sentence, Magistrate Mifsud said the accused had not only disobeyed orders, but he had behaved aggressively, refusing to be handcuffed and keeping up the struggle even when taken into a van. CCTV footage showed the detention van “swaying from one side to another,” a far cry from the “mere verbal resistance” as claimed by him in his version of events.
The court also observed that two officers had suffered injuries before the pepper spray was used, meaning that the injuries could not be “considered as a reaction to the use of pepper spray.”
“Bearing in mind this scenario, the use of force as well as the use of the pepper spray was legitimate and aimed to reign in the accused and limit his aggressiveness,” the court observed.
The court found Mr Feilazoo guilty of all charges and condemned him to two years imprisonment and a fine of €5,000.
He was also declared an illegal immigrant to be deported once he has served his term.
Back in 2012, Mr Feilazoo had petitioned the authorities to allow him to serve time behind bars in Spain or Nigeria.
“I don’t want to be here or be a burden on the Maltese government. And Malta doesn’t want me here either. I’ve done everything I was told to do but am still in the dark," he had told Times of Malta at the time.