Man still in jail 20 years after laptop robbery

Abdullahi Suleman, 41, from Cardiff, is still in prison after being handed an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence in 2005.

BBC | A prisoner who has served almost five times his original sentence for a laptop robbery still has no prospect of being released.

Abdullahi Suleman, 41, from Cardiff, is still in prison after being handed an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence in 2005.

These were handed out between 2005 and 2012 to try and keep the most dangerous criminals behind bars, but scrapped after criticism, such as the fact less serious offenders were getting caught up in the provision.

Suleman is one of the 2,734 prisoners who remain incarcerated after receiving an IPP sentence - 1,132 of whom have never been released, according to the latest data.

BBC Wales spoke to the families of two men and one released prisoner who say their lives have been ruined by the sentences which still hang over them, despite the law since being scrapped.

Suleman was given a minimum of three years and 276 days in prison in 2005, when he was 22.

"He calls them the stolen years," is how his wife Bernadette Emerson describes the time that has followed.

As well as missing his three children growing up, Suleman is also not getting treatment for bipolar disorder, which he was diagnosed with in 2004, and has played a major role in him remaining in jail.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said "it is right" the sentences were abolished, adding: "The Lord Chancellor is committed to working with organisations and campaign groups to ensure the appropriate course of action is taken to support those still serving IPP sentences."

But Suleman, who fled war in Somalia as a child to build a new life, remains in prison.

The trained plasterer was first released in 2011, but suffered a mental health breakdown and was treated in hospital.

After being discharged, he was told that missing any hospital appointments or failing to take his medication would result in being recalled to prison.

Two-and-a-half years later he was recalled for four months, and since then he has been recalled another three times for not complying with his mental health treatment conditions.

In 2017, Suleman was recalled to prison for seven years for missing a hospital appointment and at his last three parole hearings he was denied release.

"He is not going to get treatment. He is going to get punishment," Ms Emerson said, adding his licence conditions have created a "cycle".

"I feel suffocated by the thought of knowing there's no end to it," she added.