Peppi Azzopardi: Why Is Malta Still Jailing Youths Caught With Small Amounts Of Drugs?
Prominent host Peppi Azzopardi has slammed Malta’s legal system for jailing youths who are caught with small amounts of drugs.
Reacting to a court verdict where Jean Marc Dalli’s appeal was refused and he was convicted of trafficking six ecstasy pills in 2013 at the age of 17, Peppi did not mince his words.
“Sorry dear Jean Marc…,” he began.
“But how can we continue to allow young people to rot in prison because they are caught with drugs? What will Jean Marc gain by putting him in a prison cell? What kind of society are we when we know that prison is not equipped to rehabilitate these individuals, but rather turns them into criminals and further perpetuates the horrible prison environment?”
Jean Marc’s father had an emotional outburst in court upon the pronunciation of the verdict and hurled verbal abuse at the judge.
Rosianne Cutajar showed a similar sentiment with a message of solidarity.
“What do we gain as a country if we throw a person into prison over an isolated case that goes back a decade and is clearly a result of teenage silliness? This isn’t rehabilitative justice, but punitive and cruel.”
Azzopardi went on to say:
“They start believing that they are society’s waste. Many of those who hung themselves in prison when it was still being run in a fascist style had a drug problem.”
“Many write to insist on punishment. Several of them change their minds when they find that now it’s their nephews, their sons, their daughters, their fathers, their sons, and the rest. Then they understand, for example, to insist with me that their children should not be in prison.”
“There is absolutely no difference to me whether it’s the son of a random or Helena Dalli and Patrick Dalli. In every case, justice must be done, and I disagree that it needs to go down like a show when it happens.”
Many feel that drug sentencing in Malta is arbitrary with jail sentences handed out for small sentences while dealers sometimes get suspended sentences. This might not be the fault of the judge as if one admits to selling or even sharing any amount of drugs there is a statuary jail sentence.
Seasoned dealers of course, know better than to admit.
What do you make of the situation?
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