Top prison official close to former chief Alex Dalli out on long leave

A top prison official and right-hand man to former chief Alex Dalli is out on long leave in what appears to be an attempt to push him out.

Randolph Spiteri, head of operations at the Corradino Correctional Facility, has denied being out on ‘long leave’, insisting he is out on “personal leave and nothing more”.

However, sources close to government have told MaltaToday the intention is to “continue with changes in the prison administration’s management”.

Spiteri – a former aide to PN minister George Pullicino – was the right-hand man to former prison director Alex Dalli, who suspended himself from the post following the third inmate suicide of 2021. Eventually, Dalli was replaced by former Red Cross chief Robert Brincau.

Prison sources said that an inmate had filed a report earlier this year accusing Spiteri of wrongdoing. Spiteri has denied the existence of this report.

Questions to the government on the work status of Spiteri remained unanswered.

At the end of his tenure, Dalli faced criticism from a number of activists and NGOs, who questioned his hard-line tactics in prison, which they claim led to an increase in prison suicides.

Sources who had spoken to this newspaper had said that Spiteri was among prison administration staff who were disseminating two petitions calling for Dalli to be reinstated as prison boss. One of the petitions was for inmates, and the other for prison guards.

In a separate case, the Ombudsman had found that prison warder Emanuel Cassar was dismissed unjustly from his job.

Cassar had claimed that on 24 March 2019 he was fired in an abusive manner, following a “frame-up”. He said that an argument between himself and Spiteri, who was CCF chief operating officer, led to his sacking.

After the clash, Spiteri had asked the correctional agency’s disciplinary board to assess Cassar’s behaviour.

The Ombudsman eventually found in favour of Cassar.