For lack of space in prison, prisoners take turns sleeping Since Thursday, the detainees of the remand center of Moroni have been observing a strike to denounce their conditions of imprisonment. They ask for a prison decongestion plan.
The inmates of the Moroni remand center have been on strike since July 28 in order to denounce their conditions of incarceration, “no new detainee will enter this prison until we are heard and we will not accept any visits”. Claims for the only prison in Moroni are numerous and reveal the flaws in the judicial machine.
Comoros: an inmate in an overcrowded prison
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Planned to house a maximum of 100 detainees, Moroni prison has 327 in deplorable hygienic conditions. “There would be 227 individuals who are awaiting a judgment and 90 whose period of pre-trial detention (4 months renewable once) has long since expired”, according to an inmate who requested anonymity. The most famous prisoner whose term of pretrial detention has long expired is the former president, Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi. He has been in pre-trial detention (in his residence transformed into an annex to the remand center, editor’s note) since August 2018 for economic crime and has still not been tried.
Comoros: detainees denounce their living conditions
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In some dormitories, for lack of space, prisoners take turns sleeping. Unsurprisingly, the strikers are asking for a prison decongestion plan as well “than obtaining a timetable for all the detainees who have not been tried and who have exceeded the legal duration of detention”. They also complain about the dilapidated state of the building, its overcrowding, its unsanitary conditions and the lack of toilets in the dormitories, which forces them to defecate in a bucket at night.
Furthermore, the prisoners demanded “to have a permanent doctor” at their place of deprivation of liberty. Mayotte la 1ere contacted the Minister of Justice Djae Ahmada Chanfi, in order to know the answers he intended to bring to the claims of the detainees in vain. We also contacted the Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice Ahmed Sinani who asked us to contact the Keeper of the Seals. Ahmed Sinani, had assured in the columns of the Al-watwan newspaper published on July 21 that
the demands of the strikers were legitimate. Everything is done to have a place of incarceration that meets standards.
The secretary general went to the remand center last week precisely after a first strike observed by the prisoners, always with the aim of denouncing their prison conditions.