The Nationalist Party has called for the resignation of Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, saying that the minister did not have the courage to dismiss prison director Alex Dalli after yet another inmate suicide.

Dalli suspended himself on Wednesday morning following the news of the Indian inmate’s death.

Addressing a press conference, PN home affairs spokesman Beppe Fenech Adami blasted the minister for failing to dismiss Dalli from the post.

Fenech Adami said Camilleri chose to persistently defend a system which has proven to have failed not only the lives of the 14 inmates who died under the state’s care, but also the current 800 inmates and their families.

He went on to say that Camilleri did not have the courage to suspend Dalli on his own accord long ago, yet has let 14 deaths occur under his responsibility. He criticized Minister Camilleri and said he should be held responsible as minister, otherwise he should be removed from his post immediately.

Fenech Adami called on Prime Minister Robert Abela to personally take action in dismissing Byron Camilleri.

Fenech Adami said that the Nationalist Party have a set of reforms for the prison, which aim to rehabilitate prisoners rather than having them “leave Corradino in a coffin.”

PN election candidate Darren Carabott said that, “no person inside nor outside the prison should resort to taking their own life.” He said that the government should invest in a bigger and better system, particularly with regard to the worrying drug problem, which a large majority of the inmates are in prison for, as well as the prison’s overcrowding issue.

Carabott commented that the drug reform should occur outside of prison grounds and there should be an investment in the expansion of the correctional facility to address overcrowding. With regard to foreign prisoners at the prison, he suggests that the inmates should be sent to their home countries for reform.

“The problems should be addressed today, and not when the election comes,” Carabott concluded.