00:00Treatment akin to torture and conditions no human should endure.
00:05That's how the detainee's lawyer describes what he says was a more than 100-day ordeal in custody.
00:12The recently released PDO detainee himself alleges he was subjected to mistreatment during his detention.
00:19Requesting anonymity, the 36-year-old St Helena man spoke with the Express in the presence of his lawyer,
00:26Blaine Sobrien, of Quantum Legal, on Friday.
00:30He says he was arrested on June 9th while at his job site, where he was working as a welder
00:35and fabricator.
00:37If you hear the beach where it's like, they put you to knee lung, there are a piece of wood
00:40beating you on each of your foot.
00:42There is one, they're coughing all in your ribs.
00:44They attempt to cut off my b****, right?
00:47One choke, one officer also choked me at the same time, and then why is that other one slap me
00:52at the same time?
00:54Stuff like that.
00:54Then, it was over 100 days between a police station cell, the Eastern Correctional and Rehabilitation Center in Santa Rosa,
01:03and the Golden Grove Prison, with most of his time spent at the ECRC.
01:08It was not for really human, eh?
01:11Explain.
01:12Like, it's like pigeon flying, the pooping on you, the rats running, cockroach, stuff like that.
01:22The place is not sanitized and clean at all.
01:24Because of the conditions of his arrest, and also the alleged acts of the police officers,
01:32which I can say, from my personal instructions, are very much akin to torture.
01:36According to the detainee, the grounds given for his detention included allegations involving the cultivation of marijuana,
01:44gang membership, and firearm and ammunition offenses.
01:47He denies the allegations.
01:49He hopes in suing the state, he gets compensation for the trauma suffered by not just him, but his entire
01:56family.
01:58Never been arrested for nothing.
02:00Nothing for a driving offense, nothing like that.
02:03They have to give some kind of explanation or some kind of compensation for people's lives out there,
02:07which is what I have my Wi-Fi trend.
02:10It was very hard for them.
02:11They didn't get no school books, no school uniform, you understand, to go to school.
02:16Bills pile up and things almost get cut.
02:19His attorneys allege that the state of emergency powers were used in a way that undermined due process.
02:26The SOE was used and abused by the police service for their own gain and to essentially usurp persons' human
02:35rights
02:35and the due process that normally should take place in a criminal procedure.
02:39Any legislation for the SOE, the only thing there was, was the review tribunal.
02:44So what we would hope for is that there is some sort of a third party, an independent tribunal or
02:52independent board
02:53to assess whether the ZOSO or whatever crime-fighting mechanism is in place,
03:00not only is achieving its aims, but achieving it while also preserving human rights.
03:07TV6 News contacted the TTPS for a response but had not received one at the time of broadcast.
03:14Cindy Raguba Tika Singh, TV6 News.
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