The international community is celebrating this Sunday, June 27, 2022 the 35th anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention against Torture. Despite the fact that Congo-Brazzaville adhered to this convention 19 years ago, torture is still denounced by human rights NGOs. For them, torture is systematic and they ask the authorities to revise the penal code in order to insert an end to this practice by severely punishing the perpetrators.
With our correspondent in Brazzaville, Loicia Martial
Filguy Mbé is 23 years old. Confused with a member of a gang, this auto mechanic and electrician was tortured under an overpass last January by the police until he lost the use of his legs. He now uses a wheelchair. ” I had an operation, but the doctor said we have to go back to the hospital all the time, but my family can’t afford it. I’m parked at home doing nothing “, he says.
Tortured with other people, his case went to trial. The State was ordered to pay compensation but it never did. Franck Chardin Aubin Tchibinda, of the Congolese Human Rights Observatory (OCDH), wants the application of sanctions and for them to be more dissuasive: “ We would like to have sentences of 20 or 30 years in prison with firm fines. And we think that in this way torture will decrease in this country “, he suggests.
Very concerned, Trésor Nzila, from the Center for Action for Development (CAD), expects more firmness: ” With regard to the authorities, we ask that all the files, all the complaints in connection with torture, which are at the level of the courts and tribunals, know a favorable follow-up “, he storms.
NGOs claim to have documented 43 cases of torture between 2020 and June 2022, nine of which ended in death.