Scandal of father locked up indefinitely over a over a laptop

Government urged to resentence thousands of IPP prisoners

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN, TARA COBHAM

A father trapped under an indefinite jail term for a laptop robbery almost 20 years ago still has no release date after he was recalled to prison for missing a hospital appointment. Abdullahi Suleman's devasted wife, Bernadette Emerson, has accused the prison system of "exploiting" his mental ill-health to keep him incarcerated under an abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail term.

The 41-year-old, who has been diagnosed with bipolar and posttraumatic stress disorder, was sentenced to a minimum of three years and 276 days for robbery aged 22. But he is still languishing in prison 19 years later - despite having committed no further crimes - having been hauled back to jail four times after attending mental health care was made part of his licence conditions.

In total, he has served nearly 15 years of the last 19 years in custody and is currently back in prison with little hope of being freed. His case was branded "scandalous" by former chair of the justice committee Sir Bob Neill, who said it is a clear example of the "vicious circle" of the mental health deterioration endured by many IPP prisoners.

Sir Bob urged the new government to have the courage to follow the committee's recommendation to resentence almost 3,000 prisoners still trapped under the sentence, warning: "It needs to happen now."

Ms Emerson, 39, insisted her husband should receive "treatment rather than punishment" as she demanded immediate help for IPP prisoners. She told The Independent: "It's really wrong. They are breaching his human rights. They are exploiting his illness."

The IPP jail terms under which offenders were given a minimum tariff but no maximum were scrapped in 2012 amid human rights concerns. But the abolition of the policy did not affect those already sentenced, leaving thousands trapped in jail for years beyond their original prison terms.