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Prisoners make shocking allegations
2007-05-08 10:01:30
By Anceth Nyahore, PST, Shinyanga
Shocking tales on gross violation of human rights dominated a visit by the Minister of State in the President’s Office (Good Governance) Philip Marmo to Maswa Prison in Shinyanga Region yesterday.
The inmates charged that the police, judiciary and prison wardens teamed up to humiliate them, with torture and intimidation being employed, as part of strategies to extort bribes from both the convicts and remandees.
The remand prisoners submitted names of three policemen (names withheld) who were allegedly notorious for demanding bribes.
Narrating their ordeals, they said despite the presidential clemency announced every year, together with the parole arrangement; none of the convicts had ever been released in Maswa District since 1996.
``Some of us here are facing rape charges, burglary, armed robbery and other crimes that we never committed whatsoever.
I have been a remandee for nine years accused of causing bodily harm to someone, which was not true.
The day the court released me, the police arrested me immediately, insisting that I had another case to answer,`` one of the inmates, Mpini Mipawa, recalled.
Others told the minister that the police had condemned them to prison for hypothetical crimes and forced them to admit they were guilty.
The inmates said they had faith in the fourth phase government as it was able to defend human rights, promote good governance and the rule of law, alleging that the police, judiciary and prison department in Maswa District did not observe them.
They called on the government to act promptly because officials in those departments lived their own way, and behaved exactly in the opposite direction.
As for the performance of the Judiciary, the inmates told Marmo that copies of rulings and appeals dating back to 2005 had been forwarded for court procedures, but were unfortunately kept under lock and key without any reply.
They accused the police of denying bail to remand prisoners, claiming that the right to bail should be backed up by authorization from the zonal High Court office in Tabora Region.
They suggested that all police officers that happened to be in one area for so long should be shifted to other stations.
In his immediate response, the minister pledged close follow up on the authenticity of the allegations so as to strengthen the norms of good governance and respect of human rights.
The complaints have surfaced just a few weeks after a weeklong countrywide inmates` strike.
The inmates called the strike, which stalled court business in major towns and cities, to push for the speeding up of investigations into their cases, which they claimed respective authorities delayed for no good reason.
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