A magistrate deemed it necessary to send a ‘reformed’ man to jail after the latter was found trafficking drugs 11 years ago.

The accused was not punished for his crime a few days later; neither a few weeks later but a long 11 years after it happened. A totally unjust and inhuman judgment.

Had the perpetrator been asked to serve time when the actual crime was committed, everybody would have applauded the magistrate in question, but to send this ‘reformed’ man to jail 11 years later is as heartless as hitting a week old puppy with a crowbar.

After the reformed man has repented and turns over a new leaf, he gets thrown into a lion’s den because prison is a place of detention not rehabilitation. I wonder whether this reformed man will remain reformed after having been shoved in a place where the situation in prison is not exactly the envy of other prisons all over the world

Valerie Borg

Valletta