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Justice minister challenged to relook into laws regarding wrongful arrest and detention to compensate victims
08 Aug 2021 at 08:21hrs | Views
PAN AFRICANIST and International Coalition Against Coronavirus forAfrican Development (ICAC-AD) South Africa chapter first Vice President Chanda Chose has challenged the MInister of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi to look into the laws regarding people who are wrongfully arrested and detained before they are found not guilty and acquitted for the sake of compensating or restoring their status to where it was before the arrest.
Chose said many accused persons have been arraigned before the courts, detained without any evidence, only information or charged and finally released from the custody with lack of evidence or have cases dismissed. He said as a result of the wrongful arrest and detention, persons have lost basics such as income to feed families during the detention, liberty and freedom during incarceration.
"Their names are tarnished and no apology from the State which is responsible for the accused's arrests is done. The Ministry of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs' budget should be directed to compensate those who are released without any charge be it political or suspected cases as long as it falls under legal matters," Chose said.
"Public Protectors have to make sure that everyone despite her/his tribe must be respected and compensated for the unlawful arrest and detention according to the number of days the accused person spent in detention or prison. This must not be negotiated because the government has failed to do its due diligence before the arrest and this will reduce the number of unlawful arrests by the law enforcement officials."
Chose said the examples of the wrongful arrests are that of the late General Lookout Masuku who was released a few days before his death. He said there was no word of his long stay in prison and hoped that he got his Zimbabwe Defence Forces benefits.
"These are many people's worries about the government of Zimbabwe, that is why I am requesting our current political leadership to take responsibility for the past Head of State' mistakes," he said.
"The late Trade Unionists and former MDC leader Morgan Richard Tsvangirai suffered many problems with state security agents."
He said at one time he was beaten up at the Highfields police station and the late former President Ropbert Mugabe came in the open saying unotashurwa meaning you will be beaten referring to Tsvangirai as chematama.
"There's a case in the USA where the former President and USA Public Health Service did a medical experimental research of Syphilis 1932-1972 40 years of medical experimentals on black peoples, but in 1997 President Bill Clinton took to the podium to say on behalf of the government of United States of America, what the government of USA did to the black Americans was wrong, and l am sorry on behalf of the government of America in his capacity as sitting president. They compensated the 400 black people
Chose said many accused persons have been arraigned before the courts, detained without any evidence, only information or charged and finally released from the custody with lack of evidence or have cases dismissed. He said as a result of the wrongful arrest and detention, persons have lost basics such as income to feed families during the detention, liberty and freedom during incarceration.
"Their names are tarnished and no apology from the State which is responsible for the accused's arrests is done. The Ministry of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs' budget should be directed to compensate those who are released without any charge be it political or suspected cases as long as it falls under legal matters," Chose said.
"Public Protectors have to make sure that everyone despite her/his tribe must be respected and compensated for the unlawful arrest and detention according to the number of days the accused person spent in detention or prison. This must not be negotiated because the government has failed to do its due diligence before the arrest and this will reduce the number of unlawful arrests by the law enforcement officials."
"These are many people's worries about the government of Zimbabwe, that is why I am requesting our current political leadership to take responsibility for the past Head of State' mistakes," he said.
"The late Trade Unionists and former MDC leader Morgan Richard Tsvangirai suffered many problems with state security agents."
He said at one time he was beaten up at the Highfields police station and the late former President Ropbert Mugabe came in the open saying unotashurwa meaning you will be beaten referring to Tsvangirai as chematama.
"There's a case in the USA where the former President and USA Public Health Service did a medical experimental research of Syphilis 1932-1972 40 years of medical experimentals on black peoples, but in 1997 President Bill Clinton took to the podium to say on behalf of the government of United States of America, what the government of USA did to the black Americans was wrong, and l am sorry on behalf of the government of America in his capacity as sitting president. They compensated the 400 black people
Source - Byo24news
