Published: 2012
Total Pages: 70
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In February 2012, a joint delegation of Amnesty International and the Mozambique Human Rights League visited five prisons in the Mozambique provinces of Maputo and Nampula. They found scores of detainees who have been held for months and even years after arrest and without having been tried before a court. Such arrests and detentions are arbitrary and prohibited by national and international human rights laws. This joint report looks at shortcomings of the criminal justice system which has allowed this pattern of arrests and detentions to occur. It shows how poor, mostly young, unemployed or self-employed men are particularly disadvantaged. They are often disproportionate targets of arbitrary arrest, and often subjected to illtreatment by police officers. In the majority of cases, these people are not informed of their rights or are unable to understand them, and cannot afford legal representation; their cases are therefore almost invariably handled by unqualified individuals or poorly qualified lawyers. Those held on criminal charges are held in particularly inhumane and overcrowded prison conditions, with poor sanitation and medical care and few opportunities for learning or training. Inmates have to depend on family to provide food to supplement their inadequate diet. In addition, in some cases inmates are ill-treated by police or prison authorities or other prisoners. This report calls on the Mozambique authorities to bring an end to arbitrary arrests and detentions in the country and to improve conditions of detention for both detainees and prisoners.
