Daniel Holmes - Daniel Holmes: A Memoir From Maltas Prison: From a cage, on a rock, in a puddle...

Published in 2020 by Lovin Malta

lovinmalta.com

Copyright Lovin Malta 2020

ISBN: 978999571896-1

Project co-funded by the National Book Council, Malta Book Fund 2019 - 2020

All rights reserved.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in whole or in part, including photographs, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author and the publisher.

Min jistenna jithenna

(He who waits is rewarded)
a Maltese saying

For my beautiful and patient loving wife, and darling dear children, who I hope will never experience the solitude I have suffered.

For my forgiving parents and strong sisters.

For all who have loved and lost, wanted or been found wanting.

For all who have gone and all those yet to come.

For all the people who have stood by me and even those who havent.

For change.

The first time I saw Daniels face, it was on a protest placard calling for his freedom in 2013.

Its not often that a grassroots protest movement forms in Malta to demand justice for a foreigner, but Daniels case was something different, something too egregious to ignore, even for such generally laissez-faire people as the Maltese.

Sentenced to over a decade in Maltas Corradino Correctional Facility for growing cannabis in Gozo, his story became a clear miscarriage of justice for thousands of Maltese people an example of what could happen to you if you fell into the hands of Maltese authorities.

And it outraged people, galvanising them into taking to the streets and organising multiple demonstrations in Valletta demanding he be released from detention, with one event organised outside the capitals court just five days before the verdict on his appeal was read out.

However, this was a different time for the island, at the tail-end of a near quarter-century of conservative Catholic political rule.

CIDs plainclothes policemen circled these demonstrations, filming the faces of protestors as Maltese authorities firmly ignored their calls. In public discussions about his case, Daniel was referred to as a drug kingpin, a real menace to Maltese society: he needed to be locked up.

And so, Daniel remained in prison for years, just one of hundreds of foreigners locked up in Malta.

He remained in jail, even as the use of cannabis was decriminalised in Malta in 2015, rendering his offence no longer a crime punishable by jail time. In 2017, Malta went a step further and legalised cannabis for medicinal use, allowing the plant to be bought from pharmacies against a prescription. And yet, Daniel remained locked up.

God only knows how different the lives of Daniel and his family would have been if he had moved to Gozo in 2017.

The first time I really saw Daniels face was in 2018, in the prisons visitation room.

We had never met though I knew so much about him and I couldnt believe just how wide this mans smile was.

Surrounded by prisoners in a foreign land where he didnt speak the language, he laughed as he described some of the traumatic things he was going through in prison, describing his numb-minding day-to-day with a glint in his eye and a cheeky grin. He was always ready with a witty comeback or a well-timed punchline.

I admired his inner resilience, his ability to stay focused on his wife and daughters and remain happy when Maltas authorities had done so much to break him. But he was still locked up, even though by then, Malta had begun to change.

In the early hours of a warm morning in September, 2018, Daniel was bundled out of the prison with no prior public announcement, taken to the Malta International Airport, frogmarched to the front of the line for a Ryanair flight to Bristol (an English city not too far away from Cardiff, Wales, where Daniels family awaited him) and was quietly released from prison.

Standing a bit behind him in that same line, I couldnt believe what I was seeing Daniel Holmes release, finally. After all the demonstrations and meetings and speeches, court cases and debates, he was out.

There was no fanfare, no public apology from the Justice Minister, no big press release; he was given a pat on the shoulder from a police officer and left standing alone in an airport hallway at 5 a.m.

Just like the police had picked him up ignominiously, they had let him go. By the time the Maltese press had woken up, hed be gone from the country, and no one would ever hear from Daniel Holmes again at least, thats Maltese authorities had hoped for.

Thanks to our prior agreement, I boarded that flight, and Lovin Malta joined Daniel on his first day out of prison.

And now, well over a decade since that fateful day when he was arrested in Gozo, Daniel will be telling his story, uncensored and in all its horrific glory.

Maltese authorities took away a decade of this mans life, saying he deserved the punishment. Read on, and decide for yourselves.

Johnathan Cilia
Journalist, Lovin Malta

From a cage, on a rock, in a puddle is a story of life, death and love: darkness and light. My decision for this title is threefold. Firstly, it was mainly written from my prison cell on the rocky island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. Secondly, on every letter I wrote back home to my family, I used these words as my address to bring some levity to the situation. Thirdly, on an existential level, we are all inside the bubble of our planet living on a small percentage of land surrounded by waters that bring life. In the vastness of our universe the ratio is comparable to the title.

This book spans 15 years in a fight against injustice and a battle for liberty. It is mainly narrative but also includes journal entries, photos, poems and a short story to give an inside view to the harrowing ordeal of two ordinary men and their families trapped in the archaic justice system of Malta.

My daughter asked me the other day, Why did you go to prison?

Even though Ive answered her many times, I began to try and explain it to her once more. I tried to explain that I went to prison for growing the plant cannabis. A plant that is illegal in some countries and not in others. A plant that is quickly becoming the next super crop for pharmaceutical companies selling it for medication. She looked at me in total confusion, and I to her.

I have heard that Albert Einstein once said, If you cant explain something to a six-year-old, you really dont understand it yourself.

Its true I do not understand. I do not understand how so many countries in the world are now making billions due to the sale of cannabis products, while so many still rot in jails for the personal use of cannabis.

Imagine my further confusion when I read these quotes from then Prime Minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, at the Cannabis Europa convention, less than a year after I had completed my 14-year torment under the government of Malta:

We see the production of medical cannabis as a progression within the life sciences sector, which already includes the production of pharmaceuticals, active ingredients, medical devices, testing and batch release operations, research and clinical work, dossier building and so much more.

By being the first in most of these areas, Malta is proud to be Europes island of innovation, where ideas are born, tried and tested, then shared with the whole world.

Since laying the rules in this specific bill, Malta Enterprise received 46 project applications, of which, 20 projects have been approved and issued with a Letter of Intent.