. . . no running water, poor ventilation
CONDITIONS at Harare Central Police Station are posing health hazards, with suspects forced to sleep in crammed cells with no running water, no toilet paper and no ventilation, recent documents show.
MOSES MATENGA
This, lawyers said, was in violation of the rights of the accused persons who are forced to endure long nights in the crowded space amid calls for the authorities to take action and respect the rights of accused persons.
The deplorable conditions are revealed in a latest application by lawyers representing 13 Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) activists arrested in February and accused of public violence and assaulting police officers and motorists while disturbing peace.
Luckmore Zhakata, Monica Chipwanya, Artwell Chipope, Eliah Mutsindi, Gift Mundandi, Austin Masanza and seven others have approached the High Court seeking to set aside the ruling by Harare magistrate Yeukai Dzuda placing them on remand.
Zhakata and other accused persons were arrested in February in the city centre, accused of public violence and pelting police officers and members of the public with stones. They are represented by Kudzai Kadzere of Kadzere, Hungwe and Mandevere Legal Practitioners.
Their application has exposed the deplorable situation in the police holding cells.
“There was no functioning toilet in the cells. We were made to sleep on concrete blocks, as there were no mattresses. There was no ventilation in the holding cell which had a terrible stench because of the non-functional toilet which was overflowing with human excrete and urine.”
“The applicants were detained under inhumane and degrading conditions at Harare Central Police Station in facilities where there was no running water, no food, no ventilation, no functional toilet and tissues, no soap, no proper bedding facilities or mattresses,” the lawyers representing the applicants said.
The predicament the accused persons found themselves in reflects the situation in police holding cells where accused persons face risks of diseases as there are no medical checks to ascertain whether they would be fit to sleep in such an environment.
According to the application, the accused persons were also subjected to severe torture in the hands of police and when their lawyer ultimately located them, they were soaked in blood. “The applicants were tortured by the police upon arrest.
The applicants were denied access to their legal practitioner and medical practitioner of choice and were not promptly advised of this right upon arrest.” The applicants argued they were unlawfully detained and were improperly before the magistrate who went on to make a decision on the matter.
According to an affidavit by Zhakata, they were not advised of their constitutional rights upon arrest and were subjected to severe beatings by the police in their numbers using batons, bricks and other unknown objects all over the body.
“I bled profusely and begged the police not to assault me, but was told to immediately stop talking as I had no right to raise any complaint and, that if I tried to complain, the beatings would intensify,” Zhakata said.
He said they were later taken to a shed at the back of Harare Central Police Station where they were forced to crawl on the tarmac.
In the holding cells, Zhakata said they were denied water and food by the state while they were overcrowded in a cell. Lawyer Paidamoyo Saurombe from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights also told the court that it was not easy to locate the accused persons and that, when he finally did, their clothes were bloodied. He said the police officers misled him on the presence of the accused persons.
“When we finally saw them, a number of them wore bloodied T-shirts. I could not greet some of them as their hands were full of blood. Accused one had put a sock on his hands to stop blood from coming out.”
He said he was briefed on the horrendous beatings they had suffered at the hands of the police.
