Raphael Vassallo
A 32-year-old Dutch inmate of the Corradino Correctional facilities, currently serving a 15-year sentence for drug importation, was allegedly beaten in prison after staging an unsuccessful escape attempt.
The incident occurred on Saturday 2 August, when Perry Ingumar Toornstra was granted prison leave in order to visit his mother at a hotel. He was accompanied by a police escort, but on the way back Toornstra somehow managed to open the back door of the van while the prison gate was being opened, and made a daring but brief dash for liberty through Paola Square.
He was re-arrested almost immediately by the same police escort, who apprehended him at a short distance from the prison a mere six minutes after his escape.
Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera is currently conducting a routine inquiry into the incident.
MaltaToday has since been informed that Toornstra was also subjected to violent treatment upon his re-entry into prison. George Busuttil, of the prisoners’ rights NGO Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl, yesterday confirmed that Magistrate Scerri-Herrera came to prison accompanied by a representative of the Dutch embassy, and that the facility itself was alive with rumours that Toornstra had been beaten by prison wardens soon after his failed escape attempt.
His precise current condition remains unknown, but unconfirmed reports suggest that he sustained a number of broken ribs.
Perry Ingumar Toonstra is one of three co-nationals imprisoned in 2000 for attempting to import into Malta 4,000 ecstasy tablets and 460 tabs of LSD. The other two are Roland Smits and Patrick Woudenberg, also in their thirties.
Toonstra was originally sentenced to 20 years and a fine of just over €90,000, but his sentence was reduced on appeal to 15 years and a €60,000 fine.