[ad_1]
This month, a court in Swaziland Sentencing Two former MPs, Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube Term of imprisonment 25 and 18 years respectively. The two were initially arrested in 2021 on charges of Participation and support Pro-democracy protests.
Mabuza and Dube’s trials Summarize January 2023 Detained Since then. In June 2023, they is convicted They were convicted of all the false charges against them under the Suppression of Terrorism Act 2008 and the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act 1938, including Terrorism, sedition and murder.
The two former lawmakers were reportedly detained Being physically attacked and was denied medical treatment and access to a lawyer.
Mabuza and Dube are pro-democracy MPs. Claim The two men demanded reforms to Swaziland’s governance system, which gives absolute power to King Mswati III, who has ruled the country since 1986. decree 2021 ban on petitions to the government calling for democratic reforms. Security forces violently suppressed these protests, including with live ammunition. 46 people Deaths during protests in June 2021, reported Disproportionate and unnecessary use of force Condemned by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The sentences against Mabuza and Dube are a stark reminder that Accountability and Justice The United States has been condemned for serious violations committed by law enforcement officers during and before and after the 2021 protests. In a country where political dissidents are imprisoned, judicial Neither impartial nor independent, it is yet another sign of Swaziland’s already deteriorating human rights record.
The Swaziland government should stop weaponizing the criminal justice system and quash the convictions and sentences of Mabuza and Dube, and all those imprisoned simply for exercising their rights to political expression or peaceful assembly.
[ad_2]
Source link
