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Lawyers for an AIDS awareness
campaigner in Zimbabwe are taking a landmark test case to Zimbabwe’s Supreme
Court. The case concerns forcing police and prison authorities to ensure that
people with HIV get their life prolonging medication.
The plaintiff was arrested for being
one of the bystanders at a lecture in Harare that police claimed was in
preparation for a revolt in the country. He was later freed without being
charged. The plaintiff, who has been HIV-infected for 18 years, said in court
papers that he was denied appropriate antiretroviral treatment in jail for
three weeks in 2011, and his condition worsened. Also, he had been kept in a
filthy crowded cell, held in solitary confinement for demanding his
medications, and on the day of his arrest, Harare police did not allow him to
call his family to bring medication he took twice a day on an exact timetable.
After the lawyers intervened, his
family was able to bring the medication two days later, but it was kept by the
police and he was given a prison issue tablet once a day. In the court papers,
he states that he is dependent on the medications and a healthy diet to stay
alive.
No official figures are currently
available on deaths in Zimbabwe’s prisons and police cells. The lawyers claim
that his plight and that of thousands of other prison inmates with medical
conditions who do not get treatment is a denial of the basic constitutional
right to life, especially for prisoners who have not been found guilty of any
crime.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
