On February,22, 2022, Senior Human Rights advocates, including Abdul M. Fatoma,Chief Executive of the Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI), made a formal request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Prison officials to visit Mr. Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray, an opposition politician, at one of the Sierra Leone Correctional Service’s facilities in Freetown.
It would be recalled that on the 17th July 2020, police complaint of an alleged sexual penetration of a 15 year old school girl. He was arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Sierra Leone Police and later detained and charged to court on the 21st July of the same year (2020). On the 7th September 2021, he was granted bail, but he still remained in a detention facility in Freetown on the grounds that he failed to meet his bail conditions.
The visit has been described by the CHRDI team as very useful because it offered them the opportunity to forminformed opinions or make valid conclusions.
According to members of the team, they learnt during their visit, that Mr. Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray has serious medical challenges, which need immediate attention.
Mr. Mansaray told CHRDI that he had spent a year and a half in detention and had been diagnosed with prostate cancer by two medical doctors while in detention. He also disclosed that because of his medical condition, he passes out urine every 30-40 mins, failing which, he will urinate on himself. He also revealed that about a year ago, a neurologist from ECO-MED, recommended to the Correctional Services that he should have a surgical operation, but he was not allowed.
In October 2021, according to Mohamed K. Mansaray, a very senior authority at the Correctional Services advised him to raise funds for his medical laboratory test fees as the facility is unable to provide him with the fund. By December 2021, Mr. Mansaray was able to raise Le 5,860,000 on his own and from monies given to him by family and friends, but he also claimed that the said money was taken away from his detention room by a senior authority who promised to give him back the money but never did.
At the time of the visit, the team was reliably informed that an internal investigation into an allegation of the possible use of a cell phone in a detention facility and also of inmates being in possession of money above the one hundred thousand Leones limit for all inmates at the facilities across the country.
Asked about his bail Bond, Mr. Mansaray responded that he had fulfilled his bail condition, but yet in prison and he informed CHRDI that he has family members and friends who visit him.
In conclusion, Mr. Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray pointed out that he had not been subjected to any inhumane treatment from neither prison officers nor from any other person or individual, but pointed out that whenever he has visitors, there will always be military personnel and prison officers listening to their conversation. The CHRDI team also experienced a similar situation during the visit.
In view of all of the above, CHRDI hereby draws attention to the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which establishes standards on a range of matters. They include accommodation conditions, adequate food, personal hygiene, clothing and bedding standards, exercise, medical services, and disciplinary procedures. They said that these rules are now complemented by the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. According to CHRDI it obliges States to set up preventive monitoring mechanisms to maintain detention standards.
CHRDI expresses disappointment and denounces the service and conditions of the facilities for both security personnel and the inmates and calls for proper improvement of the detention centres and the conditions of services for all the workers. CHRDI also points out to the fact that there are no in-house psychiatrist Doctor(s) or clinicians in the centres and correctional services personnel have to apply ‘common sense’ to treat inmates with mental health issues or call on the country’s only psychiatric doctor for treatment. “There is no external monitoring or oversight, which is extremely damaging, considering the level of negligence and incompetence displayed by some correctional services personnel on a daily basis,” they added.
CHRDI caution the government of Sierra Leone that keeping inmates in jail in very poor health conditions puts both their own health and the health of the Correctional Services staff that come into contact with them at risk and impedes efforts to maintain public health. “It also defies both Sierra Leonean and international law, which requires care for the health of prisoners”they said.
CHRDI further urged the authorities to take action now, before it is too late, and use different tools to reduce the prison population.