UK justice - Just right. Abdullahi is serving a life sentence for stealing a laptop computer
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 9:41 pm
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UK - 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.