A man who was escorted to jail over a €200,000 civil debt owed to his father is claiming that he was treated like a criminal inside prison, despite the case’s civil nature.

“It’s horrible inside. I spent all night crying because they put me in Division Six, the worst division,” Noel Gafà told Times of Malta on Thursday after walking out of the Corradino Correctional Facility.

Gafà, a 41-year-old technician with no brushes with the law, was escorted to prison on Tuesday by court marshals who were executing a warrant issued by a civil court upon the request of Gafà’s estranged father, Mario.

The dispute centres around rental arrears on a garage that Noel Gafà rented from his father to use for business. In June 2022, the court of appeal confirmed that the son was to pay the creditor – his father – €69,881 plus interest and costs.

The full amount added up to some €200,000, a sum which the son lacked the means to settle.

“I was treated like a criminal, but I am not,” Gafà said after spending two nights in a cell in the Paola prison.

Confused about the legalities of the situation, Gafà emphasised that the case between him and his father is civil and not criminal, yet he was thrown into the prison’s Division Six which normally takes 30 to 40 inmates.

In this division, inmates are only allowed out of their cells for an hour a day, while the other 23 are spent cooped up indoors in less-than-comfortable conditions.

Experience  traumatic for mother and son

“Animals are treated better than he was,” Gafà’s mother Rita said, claiming that her son had to stay in a small dirty room, filled with mosquitoes, forcing him to spend restless nights awake.

“It’s terrible the way he treated him… as if he wasn’t his son,” Rita said, noting that the experience has been traumatic for both.

On his relationship with his father, Noel Gafà explained that the pair no longer speak.

“It truly disappoints me because he is my father, so I wanted to have a good relationship with him, but basically… the bond between us has been broken, which is something that I never wanted,” he said.

Following his release Gafà went back to the garage in question and found a padlock keeping him out of the property, his lawyer Ryan Falzon said. Gafà went to report the matter to the police, Falzon added.

I spent all night crying because they put me in Division Six, the worst division- Noel Gafà

On Tuesday, Gafà was escorted to jail after court marshals showed up with a warrant for his arrest.

However, within hours, his legal counsel launched a threefold challenge, filing proceedings before the First Hall, Civil Court in a bid to revoke the warrant while also filing before the constitutional court.

They claimed that the father’s “arms twisting” pressure had resulted in an abusive situation which breached his son’s fundamental rights, requesting an interim measure to obtain his release from jail. The request was turned down.

Yesterday morning, his lawyers filed a fresh application before the same civil court which had originally issued the warrant, informing the judge about their refused request. The court upheld that request and lifted the warrant, allowing Gafà to walk out.

Gafà’s future will be decided at a future court sitting where it will hear submissions by the parties and decide whether to revoke the warrant for his imprisonment.

“I hope a decree from court to [take me to prison] never happens again,” Gafà said upon his release.

Lawyers Ryan Falzon, Timothy Bartolo and Jonathan Thompson are assisting Gafà in the case.