Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri is politically responsible for the “tragic” situation that Malta’s prison is facing due to his lack of action, the Nationalist Party said in a statement signed by Spokesperson for National Security and the Fight against Criminality Beppe Fenech Adami. 

The statement comes in reaction to the death of a 25-year-old Pakistan prisoner at the Corradino Correctional facility reported on Thursday morning. 

“The announcement of the death of another person in the Corradino Correctional Facility reminds us that the government led by Prime Minister Robert Abela has failed in tending to the administration and reform of Malta’s prison,” Fenech Adami said. 

He explained that prisoners and their families as well as any citizen who believes in human dignity are truly concerned and worried about the fact that, despite this death, Minister Camilleri still does not understand the administrative crisis that the prison finds itself in and is unwilling to take action so that such tragedies cease to occur. 

“Minister Byron Camilleri should understand that every life, even that of a prisoner, is precious. He has to understand that no one should ever lose their life because of prison systems and administration methods that have evidently failed.” 

The minister’s lack of action makes him politically responsible for the tragic situation in prison, Fenech Adami concluded. 

In their statement regarding the prisoner’s death, the correctional services agency said that there were no suspicious signs and the first indications show that the man died in his sleep.

It is the fourth death to happen in prison in 2020, with the most recent death being that of Nazzareno Mifsud, who was awaiting extradition to the United States at the time.