Abner Aquilina, the prime suspect behind the brutal murder of Paulina Dembska is being returned to prison despite a court ruling that said he should be kept at Mount Carmel Hospital.

Aquilina’s lawyer argued that the hospital treated him inhumanely, claiming he was locked in a room for 23 hours a day.

He was sent to Mount Carmel’s Forsenic Unit, the state-run hospital’s high-security ward following his arrest in January 2022. Aquilina was then ordered to the regular ward of the hospital, a court decision that Malta’s union of doctors and nurses vehemently protested.

The nurses union ordered its members to abandon the ward if Aquilina was moved there.

Aquilina’s lawyer said it was “the first time in history” that a union decided how a patient was to be treated, locking Aquilina up for most hours of the day, only to be let out for phone calls.

He has since been returned to Corridano prison, Division 5.

Do you agree with the decision?