Criminal charges against student leader Sibusiso Siyaya have been
withdrawn. He had been charged with obstructing police when he went to Malkerns
police station to inquire about the well-being of students who had been arrested
during a protest.
It happened in September 2017. At the time voice recordings emerged of
police threatening Siyaya, who was President of the Student Representative
Council at the University of Swaziland.
On Wednesday (1 November 2017) he appeared at Malkerns Circuit Court to
be told charges had been dropped. He told the Swazi Observer newspaper on Friday no reasons were given to him.
In September 2017 it was reported that police threatened to beat-up Siyaya at Malkerns police station.
The incident was captured on voice recorder and details published in a national newspaper.
The incident was captured on voice recorder and details published in a national newspaper.
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.
Following the dropping of charges, the Observer reported Siyaya
said he ‘was shocked because his arrest exposed him to humiliation and
abuse by the police’.
Other students arrested at the protest have been bailed to appear in
court on 12 December 2017.
See also
POLICE BEATING THREAT CAUGHT ON
AUDIO
SWAZI
STUDENT LEADERS ARRESTED
PROTESTS
CLOSE SWAZILAND UNIVERSITY
ARMED
POLICE END STUDENT PROTEST
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