The sister of terminally-ill prison inmate Godfrey Ellul, who is serving a 20-year sentence for drug dealing, was stunned to learn her brother’s parole request has been turned down.

Medical reports indicate he only has a few months left to live, Betta Ellul said.

“I really believed Godfrey would be granted parole because the doctors made it very clear that he was terminal.

“It was agonising waiting every day for news, hoping against hope that he would be shown some mercy,” she said, fighting back tears.

His sister Betta Ellul holds a letter from her brother’s surgeon stating he has terminal cancer (left) and the letter denying his parole.

Mr Ellul, 67, a former drug addict, has six years of his sentence left to serve and is not yet eligible to apply for parole but for the fact he has a terminal illness. In those cases inmates can be considered for early parole.

In a reaction to the family’s plea, however, a spokeswoman for the Home Affairs Ministry said there “is no legal provision of release from prison on compassionate grounds”.

The liaison officer appointed by the parole board started the parole-request process in July, after Mr Ellul was diagnosed with lung cancer. In August, Mr Ellul had to have an operation to have one of his lungs removed and then spent over three months at Mater Dei Hospital after suffering complications.

My brother has lost all hope

“My brother has lost all hope especially as he thinks his worst nightmare – dying in prison – could come true,” Ms Ellul said.

The family were told by the liaison officer that Mr Ellul’s chances of getting parole were high since he was evidently weak and his condition was continuously deteriorating, but they were given no other details.

Ms Ellul said she would often contact the liaison officer for information but heard nothing until January 13 when Mr Ellul received the letter denying his request.

“I was flabbergasted and could not believe him when he told me. Other than the fact that he was deteriorating day by day, his surgeon wrote an e-mail specifically indicating he had terminal cancer, among other illnesses.”

Surgeon Walter J. Busuttil judged Mr Ellul’s long-term prognosis to be “poor”. The surgeon also highlighted that Mr Ellul was suffering from a heart disease that could also be life-threatening.

In a final attempt to have Mr Ellul released before Christmas, the family had decided to submit an urgent appeal to the President to consider giving him a presidential pardon on compassionate grounds. They have not yet received a reply.

“The other inmates even signed a petition and submitted it to the President when she visited the prison a week before Christmas. I kept on hoping for some sort of Christmas miracle,” she said.

Mr Ellul is now too weak to do anything by himself. He spends most of his time in bed, with other prisoners bringing him food, wheeling him to his visitations and helping him to wash.

If her brother was to be released, Ms Ellul said she would assume responsibility for his care to try and make his final days as comfortable as possible, something she had informed the parole board of in October.

“We all suffered seeing him waste the best years of his life locked up. He could have done something with his life but unfortunately he let his addictions get the better of him,” she said.

“He very much regrets that his own drug addiction led him to selling drugs to pay for his own habit and that his own vices facilitated the vices of others. All we hope for now is that he gets to spend his last days with us,” Ms Ellul said.