The release of a prisoner who had been denied bail by the courts was an unfortunate mistake by prison officials, an inquiry into the case concluded.
The inmate, who is accused of threathening his wife, was released from Corradino Correctional Facility on July 19 despite being denied bail four times.
Following the incident, the Home Affairs Ministry appointed an inquiry headed by former chief justice Joseph Azzopardi to establish the facts.
The inquiry had been requested by shadow justice minister Jason Azzopardi after the situation was revealed in a court sitting.
The inquiry report, which the government published on Wednesday, found that a file was opened in prisons for every different admission, even if this related to the same person.
In this case, only one ticket of admission was found. A ticket of admission is sent to the prisons from court every time a person is sent to prison.
The board said it was clear that the release of the prisoner when he ought to have been under arrest was an "unfortunate mistake" by the CCF officials and probably caused by the fact that a new file was opened on every different admission.
“It is quite easy in this scenario for the CCF officials to have a look at the file relating to the judgment and discard any other reason why the person concerned should stay behind bars.”
The issue of the admission tickets by the court deputy registrars was so automatic that the board had no doubt that the relative ticket was sent on this occasion, so much so that after a court sitting on June 16, the inmate was accompanied back to the prisons by the police official present on that occasion.
The board pointed out that such mistakes could have serious consequences, which this, luckily, did not.
For this reason, it suggested that, in future, the prison should retain a file for every inmate and if that same inmate had other cases pending for which he should still be under arrest these would result immediately for similar mistakes not to be repeated.
The board also suggested that an additional admission ticket is sent electronically by the deputy registrar assigned to the magistrate before whom the case was being heard.
This was already being done by some registrars, it said.
Following the publication of the inquiry report, (Jason) Azzopardi pointed out on Facebook that the report, dated August 31, had only been published on Wednesday (September 2), the day he had pointed out that the time limit the minister had given for the inquiry was over.