/ 23 November 2000

SWAZI DETENTION LAW ILLEGAL

SWAZILAND’S feared Makhundu 60-day detention-without-trial law is illegal and cannot be used to arrest political dissidents as threatened, the kingdom’s Attorney General Phesheya Dlamini said this week. The law was repealed by King Mswati III in September 1993 and would first have to be officially reinstated and gazetted before it could be used again. Swaziland Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini threatened to use the controversial law to arrest and hold political dissidents two weeks ago during the build-up to an illegal mass-stayaway and linked political rallies. – African Eye News Service