The Forgotten of Africa, Wasting Away in Jails w/o Trial (PIC)

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This story was on the front page of the NY Times this morning. This is absolutely horrifying. :(

http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2005/11/05/international/prison.large.jpg

http://nytimes.com/2005/11/06/international/africa/06prisons.html?hp&ex=1131339600&en=2baf14fc860ae687&ei=5094&partner=homepage

LILONGWE, Malawi - Since Nov. 10, 1999, Lackson Sikayenera has been incarcerated in Maula Prison, a dozen iron-roofed barracks set on yellow dirt and hemmed by barbed wire just outside Malawi's capital city.

He eats one meal of porridge daily. He spends 14 hours each day in a cell with 160 other men, packed on the concrete floor, unable even to move. The water is dirty; the toilets foul. Disease is rife.

But the worst part may be that in the case of Mr. Sikayenera, who is accused of killing his brother, the charges against him have not yet even reached a court. Almost certainly, they never will. For sometime after November 1999, justice officials lost his case file. His guards know where he is. But for all Malawi's courts know, he does not exist.

[phusion]

1. kick...

I think this is an important story so I'm self-kicking. :kick: