REMAND PRISONER CLAIMS HE WAS TORTURED BY POLICE
This week a young man made a most disturbing and shocking complaint to Supreme Court Judge Perera, as he was brought before the judge to be remanded in prison until his trial.
He said that the torture session started with taunts that he was a homosexual and that he was about to be taught a lesson he would never forget. Sopha stated that the officers then proceeded to forcibly insert a piece of wood in his rectum and despite his screams of sheer pain and agony the attacks continued unabated.
Sopha said that the officers then went on to pour cold water all over him after having removed all his clothes and leaving him stark naked. They then attached electric cables to his testicles and repeatedly administered low voltage electric shocks to his body causing him to faint in utter pain and distress on several occasions. The officers then proceeded to launch a volley of violent attacks and assaults on him before leaving him for dead in yet another dark urine stenched room.
In the light of this serious allegation, Sopha’s lawyer, Mr. France Bonte, promptly sought and obtained an order from the court to have Sopha examined by a doctor. Surprisingly, however, although faced with this serious complaint, no application for bail was made by Sopha’s lawyer.
These complaints have become commonplace in the Courts according to lawyers. Supreme Court Judge Gaswaga has expressed concern and alarm on a number of occasions that almost every week at least one remand prisoner or another has been making similar complaint to the Judges. Yet, he remarked, nothing is being officially done about it. Lawyers say that the Commissioner of police has been reluctant to conduct any criminal investigation or to take any disciplinary measures against rogue officers from the controversial SSU. This is the same police unit that attacked the leaders of the Seychelles National Party (SNP).
This newspaper, after investigation, has discovered another case of torture and abuse by the police of a remand prisoner dating back to 2004. The victim not only made allegations in front of a judge but also wrote to the Attorney General and the President of the Republic. In his letter he named all the police officers and detailed their torturous assault on him.
In his letter, the victim said that he was taken to the “questioning room” where he was tortured by five police officers for 2 hours. His torturers even included a female police officer. The victim named all the police officers involved in his torture as well as giving the exact time the torture took place. Here is how the victim described his ordeal in his letter to the attorney General and President Michel. The names of the officers involved have been left out:
• The first male officer slapped me several times and then beat me with a club of sorts on the soles of my feet.
• A second male officer punched, kicked and kneed me on my sides, my ribs and my stomach.
• A third male officer stripped me naked and the first male officer used my T-shirt to gag me while the three above mentioned officers proceeded to beat me as I screamed with pain.
• While the first male officer was gagging me with the T-shirt, the third male officer tried to insert a rubber penis up my rectum. I wriggled away from him.
• The female police officer yanked, pulled and violently tugged at my penis saying that I would not see and be able to identify my torturers.
• The fourth police officer turned the light on and off so as to disorientate me so that I would not see and be able to identify my torturers.
• After I had been stripped naked and facing down, the tip of my penis was clearly visible between my legs. On seeing this, the third police officer used the tip of his shoes to grind the tip of my penis into the ground. I screamed in pain. My concubine who was outside heard the screams.
Fortunately, for this remand prisoner another police officer went to see the victim’s lawyer and informed her that unless the prisoner was granted bail he would die in custody. His counsel proceeded to make an urgent bail application mid-morning before another judge. While in the dock the prisoner was unable to stand by himself and had to be supported by two police officers. The victim ended up in the hospital in intensive care after he had started vomiting blood.
During the one party state it was common for anyone who is arrested to suffer inhumane and degrading treatment. These practices have continued unabated even after the multiparty state system was re-introduced in 1993, and everyone is supposed to enjoy the protection of the Constitution.
The issue of protection of suspects and remand prisoners remains a very controversial one. Lawyers say that since the multiparty system has been re-established, the judges have preferred to wash their hands of any responsibility of the care of remand prisoners. Under the Constitution “every person who is charged with an offence is innocent until the person is proved or has pleaded guilty” and therefore, should not be subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment contrary to his constitutional rights. Anyone in authority who is alleged to have committed these acts should be held accountable and brought to justice. This is a course of action which the Commissioner of Police has been reluctant to pursue for reasons best known to him.
Many unlawful deaths, too, have been reported to the police but until now there has been no criminal prosecutions and the files have been classified as “unsolved murders”. The latest such mysterious murder emerged when the decomposed body of a young man was found at the bottom of the sea with an engine block tied around his neck. Nobody has been prosecuted so far for this murder although the suspect is well known to the police and the public at large.
It is hoped that this time around the Commissioner of Police will treat this matter seriously and conduct a thorough internal inquiry with a view to bring criminal prosecution against those rogue officers responsible, if this brutal and monstrous practice is to stop. Judging from his answers to Judge Michael Riley, many more suspects will continue to suffer inhumane and degrading treatment at the hands of a criminal element which has populated our police force.