Career criminal Alfred Bugeja, known as il-Porporina, has denied a newspaper report that he was strapped to a so-called “torture chair”. Testifying in court, he also lavishly praised former prisons director Alex Dalli.  

The grey-haired, spectacled inmate was escorted to court to testify in libel proceedings filed by Dalli against MaltaToday over a story published in December 2020 about the “Corradino inmate strapped to restraint chair.”

The former director had denied claims in the report and went on to sue the newspaper and the journalist for libel.

Dalli suspended himself in November 2021 following a string of suicides and deaths behind bars that saw simmering concerns about his methods boil over. He never returned to the post and has instead been given a government appointment in Libya. 

Bugeja told the court that after the newspaper report was published, a fellow inmate came up to him remarking, “so it’s true that they saw you strapped to a wheelchair.”  

Since he was unable to read, his friend read out the newspaper report, showing him the writing along with a picture of himself.

Bugeja said that story had also stirred up trouble with his wife, who had scolded him for getting into trouble, he said. But he had sought to reassure her that the report was not true. The spouse passed away just days ago.

Asked by Dalli’s lawyer, Mario Mifsud, about the “restraint chair” mentioned in that article, Bugeja promptly retorted, “Torture chair! I never ever saw that chair.”

“That story made me a laughing stock, saying that I was strapped to the chair for 24 hours in the central hall,” the inmate went on.

“My wife died days ago. I swear on her grave that that incident never happened.”

He said he had lived at the Corradino Correctional Facility all through Dalli’s directorship.

Thank God for Mr Dalli who put me on the right path- Il-Porporina

“I have been in jail for 15 years. I have been in and out since 1972. I celebrated my 16th birthday in jail. Thank God for Mr Dalli who put me on the right path,” he said. 

He recalled how his relationship with Dalli had started off on the wrong foot because he had reacted badly after being transferred from the Forensic Unit, where he was “well off”, back to Corradino.

His empty blabbering had landed him in a cell, under lock and key.

“He [Dalli] was a man of discipline,” said Bugeja.

But that discipline paid off and after that rocky start, Bugeja said he started to respect Dalli.   

“You behave as you should. You don’t take drugs and you get what you deserve,” explained the inmate, recalling how he had eventually won the former director’s trust.

“He put a tag on my leg and allowed me to go home. I returned to jail half an hour early and he [Dalli] asked me why that was so. I told him, ‘what if the car broke down on the way." "Don’t worry. We would have known,” Dalli had assured him.

Asked about other inmates’ comments with respect to the former prison director, Bugeja said that before Dalli’s appointment there were drugs in prison and those who criticized the director did so because “they did not behave properly.”

He banned drugs from jail and that was why certain inmates complained.

“We now complain over his departure.”

Asked how drugs used to make their way into prison, Bugeja replied somewhat cryptically, “I landed my wife in jail for 15 years. Is that enough?”

The newspaper report claimed that Bugeja had argued with prison officials over the use of uniforms for inmates, pointed out Magistrate Rachel Montebello.

“That’s not true at all,” reacted the witness.

“And your nickname, just for the record?”asked the court.

“Il-Porporina,” replied the tall, black-clad man, as he stepped back, walking slowly out of the courtroom supported by a single crutch, alongside a prison guard.

Prison inspector on 'restraint chair'

Earlier in the sitting, senior prison inspector Helenio Galea denied that Dalli had ever hit any inmate or used “any baton or pistol as alleged by the media.”

As for the “famous restraint chair,” Galea said that it was kept locked away to be used only as necessary and certainly not for punishment but to avoid self-harm or harm to others.

There were times when, for instance, an inmate would attempt further harm after being treated for self-harm. Such a scenario would call for the use of the chair, “but not for long stretches, only some 15 or 20 minutes, until the person calmed down.”

Asked to describe the chair, Galea said that it consisted of a metal structure cushioned in foam and having straps at the hands, feet and seatbelt-like to hold the person down.

“It’s more comfortable than the magistrate’s chair,” remarked the witness.

“But it’s effect is to paralyze the person,” observed the respondent’s lawyer, Andrew Saliba.

“That’s the whole purpose. Definitely not to punish but to avoid self-harm,” said Galea, pointing out that most prisons in Europe had such a chair.

Galea said that having worked closely with Dalli as a member of his trusted team,he could say that some media reports were a “character assassination” of the former director.

“Such stories put him down….they hurt him because they were untrue. They were simply attacks to insult him.”

The case continues in July.

Lawyers Mario Mifsud and Christian Camilleri represented Dalli.

Lawyer Andrew Saliba represented the respondents.