Police in Swaziland threatened to beat-up a student
leader when he visited a police station to check on students who had been
arrested during a university protest.
The incident was captured on voice recorder and details
published in a national newspaper.
It happened on Friday (8 September 2017) at Malkerns
police station.
Sibusiso Siyaya, President of the student
representative council at the University of Swaziland, had gone to the station
to check on eight students who had been detained after a class boycott.
Siyaya made a phone call while in the reception area
of the police station and the call was recorded.
The Sunday
Observer newspaper reported (10 September
2017) many voices of police officers can be heard on the tape. At one point a
policeman asks Siyaya, ‘Why are you here? What do you want here? Who
called you? We will beat you,’
The newspaper reported, ‘[V]oices of a group of people believed to be
police officers hurl all sorts of insults and ridicule him. The upper voice
heard is believed to be that of a male police officer who hurls a vernacular
insult directed to Siyaya that cannot be repeated for ethical reasons.’
Siyaya was arrested and charged at the station with obstructing police
in the course of their duty. He appeared at magistrates court the following day
and was released on bail of E2,000 (US$150). In Swaziland, seven in ten people
are so poor they have incomes of less than US$2 a day.
See also
SWAZI
STUDENT LEADERS ARRESTED
PROTESTS
CLOSE SWAZILAND UNIVERSITY
http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/protests-close-swaziland-university.html
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