AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT SHOWS ONGOING OPEN DISREGARD FOR RULE OF LAW IN SENEGAL
Suspects Are Routinely Tortured in Custody to Extract Confessions; Perpetrators Are Rarely Held Accountable
(London) -- Senegal’s security forces routinely torture suspects in custody to extract confessions -- sometimes causing death -- and the practice is openly condoned in court while perpetrators are seldom held to account, Amnesty International said in a report released today.
Senegal: Land of Impunity shows an appalling contempt for t he rule of law and violations of human rights at every step in the justice system.
Men and women are routinely subjected to beatings, electrocution and other forms of torture in custody and efforts to hold authorities accountable are blocked by political and legal tactics, the report stated.
In the last three years, at least six people arrested for common law crimes have died in custody, apparently from the effects of torture.
In at least four of these cases, investigations were not opened or completed and the police officers and gendarmes implicated in these acts of torture were not brought to justice.
Salvatore Saguès, West Africa researcher at Amnesty International, said: “Senegal does not even apply the human rights guarantees set out in its own national legislation.”
“Victims find their way blocked by a wall of impunity,” said Saguès. “Until that wall is broken down, the people of Senegal can have no confidence in the country’s police, judiciary or government.”
On July 14, Abdoulaye Wade Yinghou, 19, was arrested as he walked past a demonstration in a Dakar suburb on his way to buy animal feed. Witnesses saw police beat Yinghou with rifle butts when he was arrested and again on arrival at the police station.
The following day, Yinghou’s family was told by police officers that his body was in the hospital morgue because he had died following a seizure or illness. However an autopsy revealed facial injuries, broken ribs and a death aggravated by “assault with a (several) hard and blunt object(s).”
Amnesty International’s report pulls together comprehensive research conducted periodically over a decade, most recently in May, and contains testimonies from individuals including civilians victims of the past Casamance conflict, common law detainees or groups of people arrested because of their political opinions or sexual behavior. The individuals describe being electrocuted, burned and asphyxiated while being held by security forces.
The report demonstrates that the Senegalese authorities rarely investigate cases of deaths in custody, and where investigations take place, they are seldom conducted independently, impartially or promptly.
In order to ensure immunity from prosecution for Senegalese security forces, the authorities have used various political and legal tactics to avoid accountability.
For example, Senegalese authorities employ general amnesties for crimes that amount to serious human rights violations in violation of international law.
Another major obstacle to justice is the use of prosecution orders, which are required to call a member of the security forces before a court of law. The prosecution order must be obtained typically either from the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of Defense.
The order effectively grants de facto power of veto to the interested Ministry, leaving the judiciary helpless and depriving the victim’s families of any hope of justice.
At the highest level, Senegal’s contempt for the rule of law is demonstrated by its failure to bring former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre to trial.
Habre fled to Senegal after being forced from power in 1990. Up to 40,000 Chadians are estimated to have been killed during his eight-year rule. Despite repeated injunctions from the U.N. Committee against Torture and a call by the African Union, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade continues to make excuses for not bringing Habre to justice.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
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For more information, please visit: www.amnestyusa.org
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, 212-633-4150, strimel@aiusa.org
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