John Grobler
Namibia’s Supreme Court has outlawed the use of leg-irons on prisoners, ruling that it is in conflict with constitutional provisions guaranteeing human dignity.
The ruling overturns an earlier judgment that such treatment is lawful, especially for prisoners who are considered dangerous.
A full Supreme Court bench handed down the judgment this week in an application by five prisoners, both awaiting-trial and convicted and all being held in connection with violent crimes. Some of them have been held in leg-irons in Windhoek Central Prison for 18 months.
The five prisoners (Thomas Namunjepo, Shindongo Namene, Petrus Mutukuta, Sam Edward and Jonathan Kombonde) were shackled after they escaped from custody and were recaptured.
In a high court judgment last August acting Justice Bryan O’Linn ruled leg-irons were not unconstitutional.
But this week Chief Justice Johan Strydom stressed the humane values of the Namibian Constitution.
With a Constitution that outlaws the death penalty and all forms of corporal punishment, he wrote in his 24-page judgment, leg-irons and chains could not be sanctioned.
Namibia has adopted the International Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Punishment or Degrading Treatment, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Prisoners in leg-irons are unable to clean themselves properly, which amounts to a humiliating and degrading experience, he said.
While he accepted that a general public outcry against escalating crime and dangerous criminals escaping from custody is understandable, this amounted to closing the stable doors after the horses have bolted.
There is a stigma attached to the use of chains that sets them apart from other prisoners and evokes shameful memories of Africa’s colonial past, he added.