Inmate files claim for jewellery allegedly stolen from prison

A Nigerian inmate who had filed a judicial protest last year, claiming that valuables belonging to him were stolen from prison, has formally requested damages from the director of the Corradino Correctional Facility.

Amongst the valuables claimed stolen were a pair of sunglasses, a pendant, a belt, two rings, three earrings and a bottle of perfume.

This afternoon prison official David Scerri testified in the Joseph Feilazoo's claim before the Small Claims’ Tribunal. The tribunal, chaired by Lawyer Yana Micallef Stafrace, was told that he had inspected Feilazoo’s luggage in the prison store room and had found it to be empty.

Answering a question by Feilazoo’s lawyer Larry Formosa, Scerri explained that, when foreigners are incarcerated, their luggage is kept in the store room together with glass objects, or potentially dangerous or fragile objects. He confirmed that jewellery, however, was not stored with the luggage, but was kept separately in the record office.

Feilazoo, currently serving a 12-year sentence for drug trafficking, had filed a judicial protest claiming that his belongings were taken from him on his admission to the facility but he was not given a receipt. He was later told that some items had gone missing. He was only allowed to file a police report after several months of requests to the prison director.

He is also claiming that when he was forced to undergo a full-body search and accused of being a ringleader after he complained about prison food in December 2013. He was subsequently transferred to another division at CCF.

This is not the first time that Feilazoo has complained of ill-treatment at CCF, having participated in two hunger strikes together with other non-Maltese inmates in June and July 2013, protesting against prison conditions.