[WATCH] Prison deaths: Releasing inquiry conclusions up to Attorney General, Byron Camilleri says

Byron Camilleri says he has no problem with the publication of magisterial inquiries into prison deaths but the responsibility to do so was with the Attorney General.

The Home Affairs Minister said that in his capacity as minister he only gets to see what type of death it was and in the “absolute majority” of cases inmates died from natural causes.

There have been several deaths at the Corradino Correctional Facility over the past couple of years with the latest being that of a 25-year-old Pakistani national. The prison authorities said the man died in his sleep.

Camilleri has been criticised for hiding behind magisterial inquiries, whose conclusions are never public. He was recently lambasted by the Nationalist Party for remaining silent in the face of unexplained deaths.

“I have no problem with these inquiries, or their conclusions, being published… The first question I ask is whether the death was a result of natural causes, or whether it could have been avoided. I can say that the absolute majority of cases were natural deaths,” he told MaltaToday.

Camilleri was replying to questions at the end of a news conference at police headquarters where a new code of ethics for police officers was launched.

Camilleri added that it was up to the Attorney General, who receives the details of the inquiries, to decide whether the results can be published.

“I had asked the Attorney General for a copy of those inquiries, and I was given a copy of the closed cases. I can only make an analysis on those cases,” the minister said.

He added: “We're talking about a population larger than most villages - I don't know of any village in Malta where deaths do not happen.”

Camilleri also said that the court had given a ruling on an incident between Prisons Director Alex Dalli and Yorgen Fenech's lawyer Charles Mercieca. The minister will be responding to a complaint made by the Chamber of Advocates in relation to the incident.

The incident took place at Corradino Correctional Facility on 18 November, where Mercieca was allegedly intimidated by Dalli. Mercieca claims that Dalli began speaking in a rude manner and insisted that no documents would be allowed when meeting his client Yorgen Fenech, who is currently on remand in prison.

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Camilleri defended his decision to retain Dalli at the head of the prison facility, insisting discipline had increased. “Prison should be run by the director, not criminals. We can't have a free-for-all situation, as we have had in the past. Without discipline, no one can rehabilitate themselves,” Camilleri said.