{"id":19516,"date":"2018-10-23T08:22:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T08:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=19516"},"modified":"2018-10-23T08:22:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T08:22:50","slug":"madagascar-pre-trial-detainees-face-life-threatening-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=19516","title":{"rendered":"Madagascar pre-trial detainees face ‘life-threatening conditions’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At least 52 people died in Madagascar<\/a>‘s prisons last year while awaiting trial due to “appalling prison conditions”, according to Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

In a report published on Tuesday, the global rights group also said that thousands of people who have not been found guilty of any crime were subject to “life-threatening prison conditions”, including severe overcrowding and poor hygiene as well as lack of food and medical care.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main causes of death was respiratory problems and cardiovascular diseases, Amnesty said, citing prison authorities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The report was based on visits to nine prisons where more than 11,000 people had been placed in pre-trial detention, the group said. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Many of those being held for extended periods without trial were accused of petty, nonviolent crimes,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s regional director for southern Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The poorest, including women and children, with the least recourse to legal help, are those who suffer the most,” she added. <\/span><\/p>\n

Such “unjustified, excessive and prolonged pre-trial detention” violates international and domestic law, and amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, Amnesty said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Pre-trial detainees were subject to life-threatening conditions including severe overcrowding and inadequate food and medical care, said Amnesty [Richard Burton\/ Amnesty International]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Madagascar’s Ministry of Justice, in a September letter to Amnesty, said it was aware of the problem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The ministry <\/span>blamed “population growth and an increase in crime rates” for severe overcrowding and said it has “stepped up its efforts” with new laws and policies to improve conditions.<\/p>\n

Under Madagascar’s national laws, adults can be held for up to five years and six months without trial and children up to 33 months.<\/p>\n

Amnesty said Madagascar’s prisons hold more people who have not been tried than those found guilty. As of October 2017, 55 percent of the total prison population were pre-trial detainees, the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One\u00a0man said he has been in pre-trial custody for three and a half years because he was accused of stealing a cow.<\/p>\n

Describing conditions at a prison in Maintirano<\/span>, west Madagascar, he told Amnesty: “Forty-two of us sleep in the same room but there is no room to sleep, I sleep on the floor. A lot of people get sick. Some cough, some shiver, some get very cold.<\/p>\n

“And people fight about food because there isn’t enough\u2026 I really want a trial because I really suffer here.”<\/p>\n

Women and children were disproportionately affected by some of the prison conditions, the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, pregnant women and women with babies do not have access to appropriate healthcare, and children do not have access to education, the group said.<\/p>\n

The main reason for long pre-trial detentions in the African country was limited and infrequent court sessions for criminal cases, it added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least 52 people died in Madagascar’s prisons last year while awaiting trial due to “appalling prison conditions”, according to Amnesty International. In a report published on Tuesday, the global rights group also said that thousands of people who have not been found guilty of any crime were subject to “life-threatening prison conditions”, including severe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":19517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}