By: Aruna Kamara (BO)
Following several visits to the cells at the Police and Correctional centres in the Southern Region, the Deputy Director of the Human Rights Commission Sierra Leone in the Southern Region, Mohamed Tamieu Fofanah has expressed disappointment at the deployable condition of cells with no improvement over the years.
Speaking on the SLBC 99.5FM in Bo on Monday, Mr. Fofanah claims that the cells at the Police and the Correctional centres in the South lack complete attention by authorities, with no care, dignity and support for the inmates or suspects.
According to him, he expected after several monitoring visits to the holding facilities, much improvement would have been effected in line with the international human rights standard.
The Police cells Mr. Fofanah said are challenged in the area of food, illegal detention, congestion and lack of toilet facilities.
He said that a suspect, who is placed in custody not proven guilty for minor offences, should spend at least seventy-two hours in detention and capital or felonious offences should be for ten days, exceeding that amounts to human rights violations.
Reacting to this allegation in an interview with A-Z Newspaper, the Media and Public Relations Officer of the Sierra Leone Correctional Services in the Southern Region, Victor Wilson said that the statement about the Correctional Centres is not correct and that you cannot be out there and does armchair investigation.
He said that if Human Rights Commission staff had paid a regular visit, he would have noticed changes and that since 2017 to date he can proudly say that the correctional centres in the south are well taken care of.
Mr Wilson said that recently the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Human Rights and the Internal Affairs Minister came to the region and lavished praises on the improvement of the centres in the south.
“The facility is well taken care of with the inmates being given food three times and given medication among other services that they receive at the centre,” he said.
The Deputy Media and Public Relations Officer of Sierra Leone in the Southern Region, Police Constable Alhaji Osman Mansaray said that the allegations of the staff of the Human Right Commission are baseless and unfounded and calculated to smear the Sierra Leone Police.
He said “I completely disagree with the statement that the police cells are in a deplorable state. My disagreement is based on the fact that those suspects in our custody do not take care of themselves as it is the responsibility of the Sierra Leone Police.”
Police Constable Mansaray said that taking care of the suspects is part of the training that they undergo while in the police training school, noting that they were trained to always check on the welfare of the suspects in police cells.
“We always make that we clean the holding facility and there is toilet facility for them and we also ensure that all human rights standards are observed while discharging our duties as police officers,” he said, adding that the release of suspects in our custody is dependent on the type of crime committed as there are minor and capital offences.
