Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, has called on the Convener of FixTheCountry, Oliver Barker Vormawor, to substantiate his claims of torture by the Police.
Mr Tuah-Yeboah revealed that the context of torture is both physical and mental. As such, if Mr Vormawor is talking about “mental torture”, then he should be able to make it known the “intentional conduct” on the part of state actors to subject him to such mental torture.
“I am not endorsing a situation where we have bad conditions in our cells or prisons; there is the need to improve on our conditions. But when you come out to say you were tortured, I expect that you give the particulars and details of the torture. So far as I’m concerned and all that I’ve listened to him say, I cannot endorse or confirm his act of torture unless he comes out with the particulars of torture; thereafter, we can interrogate it”.
Alfred Tuah-Yeboah
For instance, Mr Tuah-Yeboah explained that if Mr Vormawor described his case as being “singled out”, whereby he was kept in an “isolated room” infested with mice and away from other inmates, then he can make claims of undergoing this “kind of tortuous act” meted out by the Police.
Deputy Attorney General explains context of torture
Commenting on whether allegation of mental torture can be substantiated, Mr Tuah-Yeboah highlighted that in instances of mental torture, where there is an “intentional conduct on the part of state actors to subject one to a certain form of activity”, it affects him mentally and can be ascertained.
“For instance, during an interrogation, you are placed in a room for 24 hours and nobody is speaking to you. Certainly, it will have an impact on your mindset… So, there’s a possibility of you proving with evidence that whatever you went through amounted to a mental torture. But if you are in a cell with other inmates, you go about what you are supposed to do, you sleep on the bare floor [and] the room that you are in with other inmates is infested with cockroaches [and] mosquitoes, that may amount to some form of treatment that you think [you] deserve not to have been taken through; but that will not amount to torture from my point of view”.
Alfred Tuah-Yeboah
The Deputy Attorney General expressed that he will describe what the FixTheCountry convener went through as “inhuman treatment” and not necessarily torture.
“I am not here to say that all is well with our cells and with our prisons. We need to do a whole lot of things to reform the conditions in our prisons and in our cells… I agree with Oliver if he went through such a situation where the room is infested with mosquitoes and other things”.
Alfred Tuah-Yeboah
Concerting to the fact the prison system needs some reforms, Mr Tuah-Yeboah urged Mr Vormawor to “join the campaign” to have the reforms in the country’s cells and prisons.
“On this note, let me commend institutions like the Church of Pentecost that has taken it upon itself to build a prison. At least we expect such things to be happening due to constraints when it comes to financial resources and you may have the conditions in the cells that nobody likes, but we need to improve upon it”.
Alfred Tuah-Yeboah
On Monday, April 11, 2022, the Convenor of the #Fixthecountry movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, revealed that he was manhandled by security officials while under detention for allegedly threatening a coup on social media. He recalled that these cells were “without ventilation and had bed bugs, cockroaches and rats crawling” inside.
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