Prison officers allegedly tortured
From The Zimbabwe Times – By Owen Chikari, 7th September 2009
MASVINGO – At least 10 prison officers based at Mutimurefu Prison on the outskirts of Masvingo city are battling for their lives at Masvingo General Hospital after they were allegedly tortured by the military police for indiscipline.
The Ministry of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has reportedly deployed military police at the main prisons countrywide to curb cases of indiscipline. Some dangerous criminals have escaped from custody while prison officers were on duty.
The 10 officers said yesterday said they were tortured for reporting for work late while senior prison officers said they were punished for unspecified cases of indiscipline.
Two of the victims were unconscious when they were brought to hospital.
“We were just told that we had reported for work late hence we were supposed to be disciplined”, said one of the officers.
“Some of us sustained serious injuries and our seniors have barred us from making a police report”.
The officer in charge of Mutimurefu Prison, Finos Masango, yesterday confirmed the prison officers were disciplined but pleaded with the media not to publish the story.
“The ten were just disciplined in a normal way and to say they were tortured is very untrue”, said Masango. “I plead with you not to publish this story because it is sensitive. Only two sustained serious injuries while others were just treated for minor injuries.”
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice David Mangota yesterday professed ignorance over the issue but vowed to investigate the case.
“I am not aware of that but right now I am going to institute investigations so that a full report is forwarded to me within two days”, said Mangota.
Zimbabwe’s prisons are overcrowded. Last week President Robert Mugabe pardoned about 1500 prisoners.
Cases of inmates escaping from custody after paying bribes to prison officials are on the increase in the country.
According to reliable sources this has prompted the ministry to deploy military police at its main prisons to curb cases of indiscipline.
“The military police have been deployed in all the country’s prisons to instill discipline among officers”, said the source.
“However, in some cases some of the military police personnel beat people severely hence the incident at Mutimurefu”.
Last year about six inmates, most of them facing serious criminal charges, escaped from Masvingo Remand Prison after allegedly paying cash in return for their freedom.
Two of the inmates were re-arrested while the rest are still at large. Four prison officers were later arrested while the officer in charge has since been fired.
