Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Close to 2,000 prisoners could be released in a move to decongest the facilities as one of the control measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Commissioner-General of the Uganda Prisons Services, Dr. Johnson Byabashaija, says they have written to the Attorney …
Read More »Anxiety grows for Egypt jail inmates at time of virus shutdowns
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | In Egypt’s overcrowded and putrid jails, families of prisoners fear a potentially catastrophic coronavirus outbreak and are calling for their imminent release as the rest of the country hunkers down. Egypt has halted family visits to inmates at least until the end of this month citing …
Read More »US prisons a potential coronavirus ‘tinderbox’
Washington, United States | AFP | As the United States grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, there is concern not only for the elderly but also for another vulnerable population: prisoners. The US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world and experts have warned that infections could potentially spread rapidly …
Read More »Electoral Commission asks court to dismiss petition seeking to include prisoners in voting process
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Electoral Commission has asked court to dismiss an application challenging its failure to include Ugandan inmates and citizens in the diaspora in the electoral processes on grounds that the suit is incompetent. Electoral Commission lawyers led by Hamid Lugolobi told the Civil Division High …
Read More »Meet the Berlin Wall tunnel digger saved by Stasi ‘hero’
Berlin, Germany | AFP | When Berlin’s despised Wall went up in 1961, the divided city overnight became an imposing landscape of barbed wire and guards with shoot-to-kill orders. But below the earth, desperate Germans began digging dozens of tunnels to try to burrow their way to freedom, or liberate easterners …
Read More »Ethiopians strike over state of emergency
Burayu, Ethiopia | AFP | Businesses closed in Ethiopia’s capital and its largest region on Monday to protest a state of emergency declared after the prime minister’s resignation last month. Shops were shut and roads deserted in parts of the capital Addis Ababa and in towns in the surrounding Oromia …
Read More »Nigeria releases more Boko Haram suspects
Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria has freed another 51 Boko Haram suspects in the latest round of dropped cases for lack of evidence, the justice ministry said Monday. Over the course of last week, hundreds of suspected Boko Haram extremists appeared before a court at the Kainji military base …
Read More »Ethiopia to release jailed ‘politicians’
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia’s leader promised Wednesday to release “politicians” from jail and shut down a detention centre where human rights groups allege torture is routine. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn made the undertaking in comments to reporters in the capital Addis Ababa, although he did not …
Read More »UN expert says Guantanamo torture continuing
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The UN’s top expert on torture on Wednesday said reports from sources indicated at least one inmate was still being tortured at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay and reiterated his request to visit. Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said he had …
Read More »Italian prisoners use Pope visit as chance to escape
Rome, Italy | AFP | Two prisoners who were invited to meet Pope Francis for lunch on his recent visit to Bologna took advantage of the occasion to escape, local media reports said Wednesday. The two men, who were being held in a rehabilitation facility for drug addicts and prisoners, were …
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