A man was held at the forensic wing of the state mental hospital for an extra four months due to an administrative oversight.
The Correctional Services Agency told Times of Malta that the man, who was being held in preventative arrest pending sentencing, was eventually moved out of the prison wing of the hospital and into a nearby section that is not part of the island’s correctional services facilities once the oversight was noticed.
Mahad Mohamed Abdiqani, 23, of Somalia, was meant to be let out of the so-called forensic wing at Mount Carmel Hospital in October, and moved to receive treatment at another wing of the same hospital.
However, it turns out that Abdiqani was only moved out of the forensic wing in February after he told officials there that he had already spent more time there than he ought to.
The issue was flagged by University of Malta academic Andrew Azzopardi who on Tuesday took to Facebook to flag concerns that a prison inmate had been held for an extra four months.
Azzopardi claimed the incident had occurred due to an oversight at the prison records office.
Contacted for their reaction, the agency which runs Malta’s prison facilities, confirmed that the inmate had been held in the forensic wing longer than necessary.
The agency, however, told Times of Malta it had never been notified of the court’s decision on the inmate’s case.
Abdiqani was first put in the forensic wing of the prison on preventative arrest pending a judgment from the courts.
The courts eventually found that he was not to serve any time in prison as he was not of sound mind and instead ordered that he be placed into the care of state mental health professionals until certified for release.
The prisons agency said it had acted upon its own initiative and communicated with the courts to establish whether a decision was taken in this regard after the matter was flagged by Abdigani.
The agency said it was informed that while the Commissioner for Mental Health was notified of the court’s sentence, it had not.