Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri has denied that a prisoner was tied naked to a chair as a punishment in prison.

The claim was made in the Illum newspaper on Sunday and the issue was raised in parliament on Tuesday by shadow minister Beppe Fenech Adami.

Fenech Adami observed that the ministry had not denied the claim, 48 hours on. He therefore asked what the situation was.

The minister said there was no punishment chair at the prison.

Camilleri acknowledged that a prisoner had once been tied to a chair, but said this happened before he was Home Affairs Minister and was done on the recommendation of a doctor, after a prisoner was judged as being a danger to himself, the staff and other prisoners. 

Conditions within Corradino Correctional Facility have come under scrutiny in recent weeks, after a spate of prisoner deaths prompted civil society group Repubblika to demand the sacking of CCF director Alexander Dalli. 

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