An inmate who accused prison staff of wrongly putting him in a psychiatric facility hit a wall with his legal bid on Thursday after the Hong Kong Small Claims Tribunal ruled it did not have jurisdiction to deal with his complaint.

Kashif Nazir, who is serving a 13-year term at Stanley Prison, was admitted to Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre on September 6 last year for five days and spent the first two locked up in an isolation room, which he called the “torture chamber”.

Nazir was convicted in 2015 of trafficking almost 700 grams of cocaine. He alleged that the decision to send him to the facility was an act of revenge by prison staff over a range of complaints he had made against them to the ombudsman, Correctional Services Department and police.

Nazir said he filed the present case to claim HK$75,000 (US$9,630) for the 75 hours of “nightmarish” experience he had endured at the centre.

Staff from the Department of Justice defended the decision to send him to the facility, saying it was backed by medical advice.

But on Thursday, deputy adjudicator Kestrel Lam handed down an unexpected ruling.

Lam found that Department of Justice representatives had failed to advise Nazir that his case could not be dealt with at the tribunal.

Nazir is told to apply to the High Court for a judicial review.

“In my view, the allegation … was clearly an administrative decision and its legality and validity was also clearly a public law issue,” he said.

Lam told Nazir to apply to the High Court for a judicial review and said he could not rule on the merits of the case.

Nazir claimed in court documents he was deprived of water to clean himself for prayer and locked in a cold room during his stay at the psychiatric centre.

On September 6, he asked for an orange but was given another type of citrus fruit.

The staff then referred him to the psychiatrist at Stanley Prison regarding his “abnormal behaviour” before he was sent to Siu Lam.

The psychiatrist said she examined Nazir based on the information given by the prison staff, the court heard.

The inmate also said he had been sent to the isolation room without having been screened by the facility’s psychiatrist.

Medical reports dated 2019 showed he was emotionally stable, although he admitted he had used sleeping pills.

Over the past two years, he had filed 14 complaints to the ombudsman regarding a number of correctional service employees, and lodged reports to police over claims that prison staff had assaulted him. Police handed those complaints over to the Correctional Services Department.