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Momodou
Denmark
11818 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Sep 2006 : 14:28:01
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Foroyaa Editorial
DETENTION WITHOUT TRIAL
Buba Sanyang, Malick Mboob, Duta Kamaso
Detention without trial has become a common feature of The Gambia. The case of Buba Sanyang, Malick Mboob, Duta Kamaso and the rest are just examples.
The Red Cross needs to visit these people where they are kept to determine whether the food they eat and the conditions in which they are kept are fit for a human. Do they receive three square meals a day?
In a civilized society deprivation of liberty is limited to a reasonable time of establishing certain facts to avoid interference with investigations. However during the time that one is deprived of liberty one is presumed innocent and eventually released or taken before a court. Under the Gambian Constitution the limit to detention without trial is 72 hours.
Needless to say, during detention one is not supposed to be subjected to any inhuman or degrading punishment. A civilized country is not supposed to have jail without an enclosure to prevent infestation with mosquitoes. A civilized country would not allow prisoners to get pneumonia by lying on the bare floor with ashes spread on it. A civilized country will not accept torture and other inhuman punishment to get confession. Physiologists have established that some confessions are made under duress. This is why torture is seen as a crime against humanity. Anybody who tortures a person is also capable of being a slave owner. Only a person with a heart of stone can torture a fellow human being and still sleep with a free conscience.
Any state that condones torture should indeed be isolated from the rest of the civilized world.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 72/2006, 1-3 August, 2006
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