Nineteen migrants landed an effective jail term over their involvement in riots at the Safi detention centre last October, while a fellow co-accused, who had protested his innocence from the start, was acquitted.

As criminal proceedings continued on Monday afternoon, the nineteen migrants registered an admission to charges of damaging State property, participating in an unlawful assembly, disobeying legitimate orders and breaching the peace. 

The extent of damage to certain items such as bunk beds, television sets and CCTV cameras as well as the resulting expenses, had not been clearly and sufficiently determined, the court observed. 

When meting out punishment the court, presided over by magistrate Marse-Anne Farrugia, observed that the accused, who had only been in Malta for some months when the riots occurred, had a clean criminal record. 

Moreover, they had since apologized for their wrongdoing and had expressed gratitude towards the staff at the detention centre, the court noted further. 

In the light of such considerations, the court condemned 18 of the accused to a 1-year jail term, less the term spent under preventive custody. Another of the group, a 17-year old, was handed a 9-month prison term. 

The twentieth member of the group, an 18-year old migrant who had protested his innocence from the very start, was cleared of all charges after the court expressed “serious doubts” as to his guilt, based on the testimony of five detention centre officers who said that they had not witnessed the teenager’s involvement in the riot. 

Inspector Roderick Attard prosecuted.

Lawyer Noel Bartolo was defence counsel.