Rabat – ACAIP-UGT, Spain’s trade union for prison and correctional facilities, has reported that three inmates of Moroccan nationality took advantage of their three-day prison furlough to flee to Morocco on a jet ski.
The three prisoners were locked-up in the Melilla Penitentiary Center when they decided to use a three-day leave permit to escape to Morocco on jet skis they are said to have bought with money accumulated in their savings through the work carried out for the penitentiary administration.
The jet ski is estimated to cost around 1000 euros, and the detention center revealed that the three prisoners withdrew all the money in their savings accounts the day they were released on leave.
In its statement, ACAIP-UGT questioned the policy of granting prison leave permits to inmates who had an expulsion order attached to their sentence.
“It is difficult to understand that permits are granted to prisoners serving sentences that are accompanied by an expulsion order, even more so when they have no family or work roots in Melilla, which already represents a massive risk of violation of their sentences and might be tempted not to return to the prison once the permit has been fulfilled,” said the statement.
It stressed, speaking of the escape of the three Moroccan inmates, “Facts lead us to suspect that the escape was planned in advance.”
Reporting on the incidents, Spanish newspaper La Razon said that “this issue has led the management of the center to suspend most prison permits, making other inmates responsible for mismanagement of permits that have nothing to do with the events.”
Meanwhile, ACAIP-UGT has urged authorities to sack the director of the Melilla detention center, Don Francisco Rebollo, and to open an investigation into the case.
