By Alusine Sesay
Right Organisation, LEGAL LINK, has demanded the unconditional release of opposition politicians Femi Claudius Cole and Dr Dennis Bright who have been held in police custody since Sunday.The Leader of the Unity Party, Claudius Cole was arrested at her resident in Freetown and escorted by two trucks loaded with riot police to the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters for incitement. The police claimed that she had mobilized a group of women to protest last Monday without permission.
Femi was quoted as saying that she had been approached by some market women who complained about the present economic climate and ‘they wanted to process and express their concerns to the authorities’.
The Chairman and Leader of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) party, Dr Bright said he has not been informed by the police why he was arrested. he said that all he did was to accompany Claudius-Cole to the CID.
LEGAL LINK also urged the Sierra Leone Police to display democratic policing.
The rights organisation said in a statement on Monday that “we note also the arrest and detention of FEMI CLAUDIUS COLE and DENNIS BRIGHT, two key political heavyweights in our nation’s body politic and a few others by the Sierra Leone Police. While we admit that there could have been omissions in following due process as required under the Public Order Act of 1965 regarding protests and demonstrations, it is however vital to pinpoint that democratic policing requires the police in such a situation to adopt a human rights- based approach to dealing with the situation given the incessant hardship, inflation, sky rocket prices in fuel, goods and services and economic strangulation eclipsing the nation at the moment.”
LEGAL LINK said public assemblies and protests are essential to the proper functioning of democracy. “The right of public assembly gives the individual an access to a public forum for expression of views and provides a mechanism for individuals to take action as a group. The right to assemble is closely linked to the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association.”
Under International law, the right to engage in participatory democracy ‘without unreasonable restrictions’ is clearly acknowledged by article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). “Notwithstanding this however, the rights of protesters in Sierra Leone both in time past and in the now, have been violated in many protest situations, and the police have used arbitrary arrests and detention, imposition of stiff bail conditions to deny rights to peaceful assembly and protests. Such act by the police in Sierra Leone amounts to a contravention of international law,” LEGAL LINK said in the statement.
“Since Sierra Leone is a democratic nation, protests become an important part of our participatory democracy. If activism and peaceful protests are under threat, then the human rights of citizens and the soul of democracy is subsequently under threat.”
Rashid Dumbuya Esq, Executive Director of LEGAL LINK and former Commissioner for Human Rights in Sierra Leone, said that under international human rights law, the State has the obligation to protect, respect, fulfill and promote the human rights of its citizens. “The state is the duty bearer while the citizens remain the right holders,” he maintained.
Dumbuya Esq. said, “With high inflation rate, increased poverty, rise in the prices of fuel, goods and services, low income and a polarized society, escalating force by the police to quell down peaceful protests will lead to more violence, not less. It will also tend to create feedback loops where protesters may escalate against police and police escalate even further, with both sides become increasingly angry and afraid of each other.”
In moments like these, he said, de-escalation strategies are needed. “For instance, for the public to learn that the police did not only detain her but also embark on searching the home of FEMI CLAUDIUS COLE for possible guns and ammunition is not helpful to de-escalating the tensions already engulfing the nation.”
“We therefore call on the Bio- led government to ensure the immediate release of FEMI CLAUDIUS COLE, DENNIS BRIGHT and all other female protesters held in detention as a result of today’s peaceful nation- wide protests,” he said.