A Principal Magistrate in Swaziland told police they
must not assault prisoners in custody.
David Khumalo made his comments at Manzini on Monday (19 March 2018)
after a suspect appeared in court with injuries all over his body. He
ordered that he be taken to hospital for treatment before going back into
custody.
The Swazi Observer reported, ‘The
Principal Magistrate warned that accused persons are citizens of the country
and they have rights too. He said they have a right to assist police with
investigations but they cannot be forced to do that by being assaulted.’
Police denied assault.
Blessing Bakhe Maseko, aged 22, of Madonsa, informed
the court through his attorney that he was heavily assaulted with a sjambok a
while inside police cells, the Observer
reported.
The newspaper said Maseko stripped his T-shirt inside
the courtroom to show the fresh scars he sustained as a result of the alleged
beatings he received from the police officers.
The Observer
reported, ‘Explaining the bruises which were all over the accused person’s
body, the attorney stated that Maseko has been left with injuries on his left
shoulder, his back and is also bleeding through his ears. So severe is the
torture purportedly carried out by police on the suspect who was in holding
cells such that the suspect now prefers to be kept at correctional remand
facilities as opposed to police custody.’
Maseko had been arrested with four other suspects on
robbery charges.
There are numerous reports of police torture in
Swaziland. In March 2017, A man accused of multiple murders told
a court he was tortured by police for 11 days to force him to
confess. He said he was suffocated with a tube and assaulted all over his body,
resulting in many serious injuries. The alleged attack was said to have taken
place at Lobamba Police Station, the Manzini Magistrates’ Court was told.
In January 2017, local media reported police
forced a 13-year-old boy to remove his trousers and flogged him at Ngwenya
police station with a sjambok, to make him confess to stealing a mobile
phone.
In September 2016, women
were reportedly ambushed by armed police and ‘brutally attacked’
by police during a strike at the Plantation Forest Company, near Pigg’s
Peak.
In June 2016, a United Nations review panel looking
into human rights in Swaziland was told in a joint report by four
organisations, ‘In Mbabane [the Swazi capital], police tortured a 15-year-old
boy after his mother had reported him for stealing E85.00 (US$6). The boy
alleges that he was beaten with a slasher (metal blade tool for cutting grass)
and knobkerrie (club) for five hours. While enduring the pain, he alleges that
he was made to count the strokes aloud for the police to hear. Instead of being
charged, the boy was physically assaulted and made to sit in a chair for thirty
minutes before he was sent back home.’
The report
was submitted to the United Human Rights Council
Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of Swaziland by the Swaziland
Multi-Media Community Network, Swaziland Concerned Church Leaders, Swaziland
Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations and Constituent Assembly –
Swaziland.
They also reported the case of Phumelela Mkhweli, a
political activist who died after an alleged assault by police after they
arrested him.
The report also stated, ‘In April 2011, a 66-year-old
woman was confronted by three police officers regarding the wording on her
t-shirt and headscarf. The police allegedly pulled off her T-shirt, throttled
her, banged her head against the wall, sexually molested her, kicked her and
threw her against a police truck.
‘The US Department of State reported on many
allegations of torture and ill-treatment by police; including beatings and
temporary suffocation using rubber tube tied around the face, nose, and mouth,
or plastic bags over the head,’ the report stated.
See also
‘HORROR
TALE OF SWAZI POLICE TORTURE
POLICE
‘BRUTALLY ASSUALT’ WORKERS
MORE
POLICE TORTURE IN SWAZILAND
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/01/more-police-torture-in-swaziland.html
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