In this week’s Crime Watch, Acting Principal Magistrate Kumba Sillah Camara of the Bundung Magistrates’ Court enlightens us more about the meaning of law, its relations with society and the causes of crimes among the youths.

A society is a group of humans characterised by patterns of relationships between individuals who may share a distinctive culture and institutions while law is a system of rules a society sets to maintain order and prevent harm to persons and properties.

According to Acting Principal Magistrate Kumba Sillah Camara, law is a body of rules guiding human conduct, which is of course guided by sanctions. Most laws are codified.
No society can do without law, and most countries have as many as hundreds of thousands of pages of law.

Laws are enforced in the society by the police, supported by the court and prison systems. It is important to know that the law must uphold and not contradict the constitution - a document outlining the most basic rules of the country.

There are many categories of law. We have company law, contract law, criminal law, constitutional law, and civil law. Principal Magistrate Kumba Sillah maintains that each of these sets the rules for a distinct area of human activity.

Criminal cases are handled by the state. They are quite different from civil cases which are between two individuals. Civil cases can even be solved out of court. In criminal cases, individuals have no right to withdraw.  This can only be done by the prosecution. That is to say that it is the state that can withdraw such cases.
This must be based on cogent reason(s). Section 68 of the CPC Section 1 states that it should be done  with consent of the court.

Expounding on the necessity and need for law in the society, Mrs Kumba Sillah Camara said laws are guidelines that are set out regulate behaviour that has been developed over time.

The only difference between animals and human beings is the law. If there is no law guiding human beings, there will be lawlessness, intolerance, anarchy, and chaos. In fact there will be no peace. Law is more than necessity because without laws people will trample on each other’s right.

The law is there not only to curb but to guide and protect the society. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Despite the fact that the society is well enlightened about the law; there is still need for more sensitization about the law through workshops, electronic and print media, and so on.

One Kuta Camara was recently arraigned before Senior Magistrate Abdoulie Mbake of the Kanifing Magistrate Court charged with stealing.

According to the prosecution, the accused stole a wheelbarrow valued at D1800. The wheelbarrow belongs to one Lamin Jatta of Bakau.

When the charged was read to him, he pleaded not guilty. He was granted in the sum of D1800 or a Gambian surety with landed property.

Zimbabwe's prison walls have not insulated inmates from the effects of the country's economic meltdown. A recent report has warned that the nation's 55 prisons have become "death traps", with conditions deteriorating rapidly and diseases spreading even faster.

The Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO), a prisoners' rights group, said jails were in a "deplorable state".

Israel Chamboko, 30, (not his real name) from Highfield, a low-income suburb in Harare, the capital, spent three years in Chikurubi maximum security prison on the outskirts of Harare for car radio theft. He has vowed never to go back.

"Generally, life was unbearable; we hardly had enough food to eat, not enough water, our cells were hot, dingy and smelly in summer and extremely cold in winter," he said.

"If you told the guards you were sick they would laugh in your face and say, 'criminals deserve to die'. They didn't care if you were HIV positive, or you were diabetic, or that you had any of these chronic illnesses. We were all just criminals with no rights."

The ZACRO report said water cuts were frequent, while sanitation often consisted of one bucket in the corner of a cell occupied by a number of inmates, and another bucket with water for washing and drinking.

Findings also revealed that the country's 55 prisons including satellites, with a capacity of around 17 000, were holding over 35,000 inmates. Overcrowding and the unhygienic conditions were also contributing to the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) and cholera.

Pellagra, a deficiency disease, was also common. It is caused by a lack of vitamin B3 and trypophan, an essential amino acid found in meat, poultry, fish and eggs, all foodstuffs no longer available in jails.

The lack of condom distribution in prisons has also exacerbated the spread of HIV/AIDS. Prison authorities refuse to provide condoms to inmates in the belief that it will encourage homosexuality, which is illegal in Zimbabwe.

HIV positive prisoners

In a country with one of the highest prevalence rates in the world, prisons have not been spared the effects of the pandemic. ZACRO's information officer, Wonder Chakanyuka, said at least 10,000 people in prisons were living with HIV/AIDS, but their needs were being neglected.

Although antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) were available, the treatment was not accompanied by proper nutrition. Inmates in most prisons were surviving on just two meals a day, and at least two prisoners died every day as a result of hunger and disease.

"The main problem is that nutritious food is not available, which is necessary to boost immunity of inmates affected by the pandemic. The shortage of food in most prisons remains a scenario undermining disease mitigation programmes in the prisons."

HIV-positive inmates also do not have access to drugs to treat opportunistic infections. ZACRO found that because of the shortage of drugs, prisoners were obliged to buy their own medicines through their relatives, but the escalating cost of medicines meant many families could barely afford this extra expense.
Sebastian Chinhaire of the Zimbabwe National Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS said HIV-positive inmates suffered the double tragedy of being stigmatised because of their positive status and being labelled criminals.

"People in prisons have rights like us that should be protected and respected. The justice system in Zimbabwe is such that people want to throw away the keys after locking someone up; society simply forgets about them."

Acting spokeswoman for the Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS) Granitia Musango said the prison service was doing the best it could in light of the economic meltdown in the country.

"The Zimbabwe Prison Services' mandate is to ensure all prisoners are treated with respect and dignity while in prison ... However, it must be noted that the Zimbabwe Prison Services, like any other government institution, has not been spared by the economic crisis."

PlusNews 

Faced with a growing number of drug trafficking, money laundering and organised crime investigations, the head of Cape Verde’s judiciary police told IRIN his agents may know who the traffickers and money launderers are, but do not have enough resources to catch them all.

Oscar Silva dos Reis Tavares, who directs high-level crime investigations at the judiciary police, told IRIN his agents are handling 150 investigations, including 10 money laundering cases. But the police should be looking into more, he said: “We can’t just go up to someone on the street and use what they say as evidence in a court of law. This is a small community. People may know who earns money illegally, but we need proof.”

In the past five years, the islands have increasingly been used as a transit point for drugs coming from Latin America, destined for Europe and West Africa, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Minister of Justice Marisa Morais told IRIN Cape Verde’s geography has left it open to transatlantic traffickers: “Our geographical location is both a privilege and a threat.”

Based on government records, Cape Verde, with a growing tourist economy, controls more than 700,000sqkm of water that include 10 islands and eight islets with 1000km of volcanic, at times difficult to access, coastline.

But despite a recent jump in tourism dollars, the government reported about 10 percent of its population living in extreme poverty as of May 2008. Illegal housing settlements continue spreading out in northern Praia neighbourhoods like Safende, Calabaceira, and San Pedro, which lack drainage, roads and easy access to water.

Mirage of economic growth

In a recent UNODC report, researchers wrote that what appears as legitimate economic growth in some West African countries may be explained through the drug trade: “Once the channels for disguising drug money have been established,” wrote UN researchers, “they can be used for concealing all manner of criminal proceedings.”

According to the 2008 African Development Bank and Organization of Economic Development report for Cape Verde, its economy grew more than 10 percent in 2006, in large part from tourism investments, which increased more than tenfold from 2004-2006 to $509 million. Since then, the government has passed legislation to attract additional foreign investment.

Josep Coll, European Commission ambassador in Cape Verde, told IRIN legitimate foreign investments can be undermined by money laundering: “Yes, we can have the mirage of a booming economy, but this is false if there are illegal investments, condemned by international law, in the mix which lead to unfair competition.”

Coll said Cape Verde’s economic growth reflects legitimate investments. But if the government is not careful, he added, money laundering can force these businesses to fight against much more well-financed illegal business fronts funded by drug dollars: “If an economy is based on businesses with questionable [illegal] funding sources, then growth is not sustainable.”

Economists call this the “Dutch disease” effect, when illicit businesses generate more money and jobs than the legal economy.

Proof missing

Police chief Tavares told IRIN the country’s crime lab has limited chemical analysis capabilities and relies on analyses conducted in Portugal for investigations. But it is more than lab improvements that are needed, said Tavares. “It has been impossible to pin down one of the most well-known traffickers here [Cape Verde] when we don’t have phone recording equipment to investigate."

IRIN spoke with several Cape Verdeans who described an arts patron, businessman and alleged local drug baron, “Joy.” The problem, said Tavares, is catching him: “We can’t dismantle organised crime based on rumours. But we do what we can.”

Iceberg?

The number of organised, drug and money laundering cases jumped from 19 to 60 between 2007 and 2008. There may be more, said Tavares: “We don’t know if we are addressing 10 percent or 90 percent of the problem. It may be the tip of the iceberg, or we may be at the base.”

Tavares said in the last four years, the government has frozen 12 accounts worth more than US$1 million as a part of ongoing high-level crime investigations. He added that since 2007, the government has seized $1 million worth of land and homes, and cars worth more than $622,000.

The Ministry of Justice created a money laundering investigation unit January of 2008, and on 31 October passed legislation to make it easier to prosecute such cases.

Though legislation criminalised money laundering in Cape Verde in 2002, the most recent amendment requires for the first time that those working in financial transactions, including lawyers, bill collectors, auditors and accountants, report any suspicion of money laundering.

In passing the amendment, Cape Verde’s Council of Ministers wrote that money laundering in Cape Verde is “connected to a circuit of organised crime, such as traffic of arms, people, drugs.”

When asked to quantify trafficked contraband circulating in Cape Verde, Justice Minister Morais pointed to the Atlantic Ocean behind the Praia hotel where she spoke at a recent high-level ministerial conference on drug crimes: “How big is our problem? Well, how big is the ocean?”

IRIN 

If we are to live in peace and harmony then everybody must play their role in protecting the community. The police force do a good job in tackling crime but a good deal of their time is spent dealing with trivial matters to the detriment of more complex or serious crimes.

Speaking at the launch of the sensitisation campaign, the chairman of the meeting, Mr. Pa Habibou Mbai, said every citizen and member of the community should be like a police officer to help reduce the crime rate. He stated that the community can tackle some of its problems without the intervention of the police. He said that people should never conceal criminals in their houses and should report them to the authorities.

These are very important points and in fact it is dissapointing that they have to be made so plainly. We should be in a situation in The Gambia where nobody would even consider concealing a criminal in their compound. It is the essence of being a good member of the community that people watch out for each others personal safety and property. We join with the police spokesperson, ASP Sulayman Secka, who urged the community to play their part because theirs is a vital role. In conclusion he said it was the mandate of every member of the community to report any criminal activity to the authorities. We ask all readers to follow this good advice and play a full and vibrant role in their communities. The benefit for all of us will be very great indeed.

Hundreds of people on death row in Nigeria did not have a fair trial and may therefore be innocent, according to a new Amnesty International report.

Nigeria: Waiting for the Hangman, says that those sentenced to death are poor and that more than half of the convictions are based on a confession – in many cases, extracted under torture.

Written in conjunction with Nigerian legal organization, the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), the report also says that Nigeria's criminal justice system is "riddled with corruption, negligence and a nearly criminal lack of resources".

As of February 2008, 725 men and 11 women were on death row in Nigeria. At least 40 of them were under 18. About 53 percent were convicted of murder. Most of the rest were convicted of armed robbery and robbery.

Forty seven percent of death row inmates are waiting for their appeal to be concluded. A quarter of prisoners' appeals have lasted 5 years. Six percent of prisoners with appeals outstanding have waited more than 20 years. One prisoner has spent 24 years on death row.

"It is truly horrifying to think of how many innocent people may have been executed and may still be executed," said Aster van Kregten, Amnesty International's Nigeria researcher, speaking from Abuja. "The judicial system is riddled with flaws that can have devastating consequences. For those accused of capital crimes, the effects are obviously deadly and irreversible."

Life on death row is extremely harsh. Prisoners whose appeals are over are held in cells where they can see executions. After a prisoner has been hanged, other death row prisoners are forced to clean the gallows.

Almost 80 percent of inmates in Nigerian prisons say they have been beaten, threatened with weapons or tortured in police cells. Confessions are often extracted under torture.

"The police are over-stretched and under-resourced," said Aster van Kregten. "Because of this, they rely heavily on confessions to 'solve' crimes – rather than on expensive investigations. Convictions based on such confessions are obviously very unsafe."

"Under Nigerian law, if a suspect confesses under pressure, threat or torture, it cannot be used as evidence in court," said Chino Obiagwu, LEDAP's National Coordinator. "Judges know that there is widespread torture by the police – and yet they continue to sentence suspects to death based on these confessions, leading to many possibly innocent people being sentenced to death."

The poor are at the greatest risk in Nigeria's criminal justice system. Chino Obiagwu says that questions of guilt and innocence are almost irrelevant. "It is all about if you can afford to pay to keep yourself out of the system – whether that means paying the police to adequately investigate your case, paying for a lawyer to defend you or paying to have your name put on a list of those eligible for pardon."

Many prisoners awaiting trial and on death row told Amnesty International and LEDAP that the police picked them up and asked for money to release them. Those who couldn't pay were treated as suspected armed robbers.

Other death row prisoners told Amnesty International that they were arrested when they went to a police station to report a crime they had witnessed. Police demanded money for their release. Sometime police asked for money for fuel, without which they could not visit witnesses or check alibis.

Amnesty International and LEDAP are calling on the Federal Government of Nigeria to abolish the death penalty. The organizations say that pending abolition the government should declare an immediate moratorium on all executions as provided by UN General Assembly resolution 62/149 and commute without delay all death sentences to terms of imprisonment.

Nigeria: 'Waiting for the hangman' available as PDF Download here >>>

Amnesty International

Three staff members of Gamtel, Ebrima Bandeh, Adama Ceesay and Sheikh Gaye were on Thursday 16th October 2008 arraigned before the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court on various economic crime charges.

According to count one, Ebrima Bandeh, in April, May and June 2008 in Abuko, being the Director of Multimedia Services of Gamtel, did wilfully cause the loss of D197, 239 to Gamtel. (Being the revenue loss suffered by Gamtel from international calls diverted through a sim-box illegally installed on Gamtel facilities by Mr. Bandeh).

In count two, Ebrima Bandeh in April, May and June 2008, in Abuko did wilfully cause the loss of D15, 000 to Gamtel.  It is the value of the 2-mega bytes (E1) International Cable Link that he illegally removed from the Billing Department of Gamtel to facilitate the functioning of the said Sim-box unlawfully installed by him.

According to count three Ebrima Bandeh, in the same period and place, did wilfully cause the loss of D15, 000, 000 to Gamtel. It is the revenue loss suffered by Gamtel, when he illegally removed a 2-mega bytes (E1) International Link from the Billing Department to facilitate the functioning of an unauthorised sim-box installed by him, thus hampering the normal issue of customers’ bills.

Count four stated that Ebrima Bandeh, in the same period and place did wilfully cause the loss of D1, 228, 895 to Gamtel. It is the loss suffered by Gamtel when the sim-box he illegally installed on Gamtel facilities caused the breakdown of the entire Internet system of The Gambia.

Count five indicated that Adama Ceesay, Sheikh Gaye being employees of Gamtel, acted in collaboration with Ebrima Bandeh to install an unauthorised sim-box on Gamtel facilities, thereby committed an offence.

Count six indicated that Adama Ceesay and Sheikh Gaye acted in collaboration with Ebrima Bandeh to remove a 2-mega bytes (E1) International Link from the Billing Department of Gamtel.

The accused persons are yet to take their pleas.

However the state prosecutor told the court that the charges are temporary, adducing that investigations are still ongoing.

Lamin Mboge, defending the first accused, Ebrima Bandeh, applied to the court to grant the accused persons bail, but the trial magistrate, Abdoulie Mbackeh, refused the application, hence he remanded them in custody, pending the completion of the investigations.