Joshua Parfitt
EXCLUSIVE
A BRITISH source within Fontcalent prison has claimed rumours of ‘two coronavirus patients’ in the facility has caused intense protests on Sunday.
Messages from the source, obtained by Benidorm Reviews, claimed ‘20-odd’ inmates have been moved to isolation after starting fires with toilet paper in the Alicante-based prison.
He said the ‘prisoners were getting left on their own’ meanwhile prison authorities have called the coronavirus rumours ‘fake’.
“It’s gone off. Apparently there are two people with the virus in here,” the source said.
“Staff are running around with masks and suits. Prisons are a breeding group for this type of virus, but there’s not even antibacterial soap.”
It comes as Spain’s Association of Penitentiary Workers confirmed a riot at the main prison for the province of Alicante.
“Sunday morning was tense in module 2 of Fontcalent prison,” the statement read.
“Before lunch, a large group of inmates began to demand they be provided with protective material to prevent infection with coronavirus.”
“A multitude of inmates from an oversaturated module then came out into the courtyard, barricading themselves, burning objects and shouting ‘freedom, freedom’.
“The hoax that prisoners have been released in Italy in recent days has given rise to a feeling of abandonment of the inmates by the prison administration.”
The statement said the riots were led by a module that houses 219 inmates, who refused to leave a courtyard area while attacks on guards were reported.
Prisoners later agreed to return to their cells, but later began to knock heavily on cell bars ‘before burning toilet paper to throw it out the windows’.
The statement reiterated there were ‘no cases’ in the prison, but called on the Ministry of the Interior to equip staff with protective gear and help among the tense situation.
It comes as four prison workers and one inmate have tested positive for coronavirus in Spain.
The workers are based at prisons in Melilla and Madrid, while the inmate is at a prison in Burgos.
There are now 58,000 prisoners under confinement in Spain, denied visits and parole as part of state of alarm measures.
In Italy, 16 inmates escaped and 12 died of drug overdozens during riots at more than two dozen prisons in protest of coronavirus confinement measures.
Iran has released 70,000 prisoners on bail over fears of coronavirus outbreaks in the prison system.
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