By Alusine Sesay
The Police Complaint Board has commenced investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding the death in Makeni on 23rd December 2022 of a 17-month-old child in police cell.
The Board said in statement that “it commenced a preliminary investigation into reports of an alleged death of a 17-month old baby, while locked up with her mother in police cell at the Pamlap Police Division in Makeni City on Thursday 23rd December, 2021.
Themother of the deceased ,Kadiatu Koroma, had been accused of stealing a bag containing medicines worth over Le 700, 000.
The Local United Commander, the Crime Officer, the officers who took custody of the accused, and other officers have been suspended and subjected to investigation, according to Head of Police Media, Chief Superintendent Brima Kamara.
The Mother of the deceased, Kadiatu alleged that the police officers at the station could not come to her aid when she informed them that her child’s health was deteriorating.
Placing a child in police cell violates international and police regulations guiding detention.
The Human Right Commission Sierra Leone (HRCSL) 2019 Report indicated that policecells remain appalling. Overcrowding, poor hygiene and sanitation were observed in most police stations monitored by HRCSL.
This appallingstate of police detention facilities is a violation of suspects’ rights to live in humane and hygienic conditions, as provided for in section 4(c)of the Luanda Guidelines on Arrests, Police Custody and Pre-trial Detention of Detainees.
The HRCSL recommends that the Ministry of Internal Affairs should overhaul police detention facilities in the entire country.
AdvocAid, an organisation that works on providing holistic access to justice through free legal representation, education, empowerment, detainee support and a moving forward programme, has strongly condemned what it described as ‘the tragic loss of life of a baby’ who died in a police cell.
AdvocAid has over the period repeatedly called for pregnant women and women with young children not to be detained and instead to be supported through alternatives to incarceration such as community support, mediation or diversion.
This is in line with the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Article 30), UN Standards for the Treatment of Female Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Rule 64), and Sierra Leone’s Bail Regulations 2018.
AdvocAid maintained that the mother had been arrested for a minor and non-violent offence and should not have been detained, especially with a young baby.
AdvocAid calls on the Government of Sierra Leone to urgently review all cases of pregnant women and women with young children detained in police stations and correctional facilities across the country.
“We urge the Government to facilitate early releases of this group of women as a COVID-19 prevention measure given the increasing infection rates, in line with our press statements of 25 March and 8 July 2020, and calls by the UN, WHO and African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”
The rights group further stressed the need for petty offences to be decriminalized.