NamRights: Release Mwilima on medical parole

NamRights has made an urgent appeal to the special rapporteur on torture of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for the release of Caprivi treason accused Geoffrey Mwilima (62) on medical grounds.

Mwilima, who was arrested on 4 August 1999 and has been in jail for more than 18 years, is being held in a maximum security facility known as Unit Six of the Windhoek central prison.

NamRights says in its communication to the UN body that Mwilima suffers from diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, epilepsy and kidney failure.

He has been going for dialysis twice a week since September 2014. After a four-hour dialysis session he is reportedly severely dehydrated.

Yet, says NamRights, in this condition Mwilima is expected to walk a long distance from the porter's office to the maximum security unit where he is being kept.

During his trial and after his sentencing, the Namibian Prison Service agreed in court to meet Mwilima's dietary requirements.

NamRights claims that this is not adhered to.

To make matters worse, says NamRights, Mwilima was moved from a section of the prison where there is a clinic to the maximum security unit where there is no intercom to use in case of an emergency and where there are no facilities to prepare food after 16:00.

Concerned family members of Mwilima on 20 October wrote a letter in state-sponsored New Era in which they claimed that Mwilima on average spends N$1 200 per month to buy his own food to supplement his dietary requirements and N$1 500 on medication.

The family members said he recently bled the entire evening after returning from dialysis but was unable to alert the prison authorities.

The family pleaded with the authorities to release Mwilima on medical parole so that they could take care of him at home.

“Mwilima takes diabetic injections on an empty stomach and this could worsen his condition,” NamRights charges.

The executive director of NamRights, Phil ya Nangoloh, says the organisation is concerned that there “could be intention” on the part of the correctional authorities to allow Mwilima's medical condition to deteriorate further and even cause his death.

“Our concern is exacerbated by the fact that close to 30 Caprivi Strip political detainees have died under mysterious circumstances while in the custody of Namibian authorities,” ya Nangoloh said.

Ya Nangoloh added: “We are concerned at reports that Mwilima is being 'treated' by a physician from Zimbabwe. We would have no problem if this physician arrived here in his or her private capacity.

“Our suspicion, however, is that this physician is seconded to Namibia by the Mugabe regime, which is well known for politically motivated killings of its opponents.

“We are also concerned at the fact that political prisoners such as these Caprivi Strip nationals are allowed to appear before Zimbabwean judges or prosecutors who have been seconded to this country by the Mugabe regime. Justice must not only be done; it must, of necessity, be seen to be done.”

It was reported that the prison authority last week said Mwilima did not qualify for medical parole because his health condition did not meet any of the criteria stipulated by the Correctional Service Act for the release of an inmate on medical grounds.

According to this Act the minister of safety and security “may”, on the recommendation of a medical officer and after consultation with the commissioner general of prisons, authorise medical parole or probation if an inmate suffers from a “dangerous, infectious or contagious disease” or “whose continued incarceration is detrimental to his or her health on the grounds of his or her physical condition”.

CATHERINE SASMAN