Brain Lux Salone-Mandela Comments - THREE IMPORTANT THINGS TO BE CLEAR ABOUT IN THE DAVID TAM BAYOH SAGA. 1. Pa Demba Road prison is not the ideal place to keep SUSPECTS. Rather, Pa Demba Road prison is a place meant for Accused Persons who are either on remand, or have been denied bail or have been found guilty of an offence by a court of competent jurisdiction. SUSPECTS that are undergoing criminal investigations are usually kept at the Criminal Investigations Department detention facility whiles awaiting charges and not Pa Demba road maximum prison. 2. If what DAVID TAM BAYOH said in his Monologue programme has been deemed by the state to have amounted to INCITEMENT, then the Judiciary must be allowed to make a verdict on it. This is the case because, the word INCITEMENT is a legal term with specific features and elements; and it is only a court of competent jurisdiction that MUST reach a verdict that those words of DAVID TAM BAYOH over the media were tantamount to incitement. Apart from the courts, nobody should have or be perceived to have the legal competence to define what he said as amounting to INCITEMENT. To attempt doing so in a democratic society, will be a clear usurpation of the powers and functions of the judiciary. 3. A state of public emergency does not mean suspension of the rule of law. In as much as the government could be allowed to limit fundamental rights during those periods, international law and legal systems have all held that such limitations of rights MUST be necessary, lawful, reasonable and justifiable in a democratic society. The limitation test that may warrant abrogation of rights is an objective test and must therefore be proven beyound all reasonable doubt before it may be applied.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 20:27:56 +0000