Detainee dies in Windhoek cell

A THEFT suspect who was being held at the Windhoek Police Station died in detention on Saturday.

Thomas David (52) died at about 10h30 on Saturday, the Commanding Officer of the Namibian Police’s Public Relations and Liaison Division, Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu, said yesterday. He said pneumonia has been identified as the cause of David’s death.According to information provided to him, David was brought from Ondangwa to Windhoek for medical treatment on Wednesday, Amulungu said.However, because David did not know where he was to be taken for treatment, and documentation that had to indicate this was not sent with him to Windhoek, he remained in the cells at the Police Station, Amulungu related.David had breakfast at about 07h30 on Saturday, whereafter he went to sleep, Amulungu added.He said by about 10h00 fellow detainees in the cell with David noticed he was having difficulty breathing.He died soon afterwards.His passing was being treated as a natural death, Amulungu said.The cells where David died came under severe criticism from Acting High Court Judge Hosea Angula two months ago, when he judged the conditions in the cells to have been so dirty and overcrowded when a group of theft suspects were held there in April 2003 that the suspects were in his view detained in an inhuman and degrading setting.Acting Judge Angula ruled that detention under such conditions was unlawful, since it violated the detainees’ constitutional right to human dignity.Police officers’ duty to take proper care of detainees also came under the spotlight in the High Court when five Okahandja residents, including two Police officers and a Police reservist, were convicted of culpable homicide in October 2002.In the first case of its kind in Namibia, the two Police officers were convicted of culpable homicide for having done nothing, since they failed to take action to have medical care provided to a detainee who later died in an Okahandja Police Station cell as a result of a brain injury that he sustained in an assault before his arrest.He said pneumonia has been identified as the cause of David’s death.According to information provided to him, David was brought from Ondangwa to Windhoek for medical treatment on Wednesday, Amulungu said.However, because David did not know where he was to be taken for treatment, and documentation that had to indicate this was not sent with him to Windhoek, he remained in the cells at the Police Station, Amulungu related.David had breakfast at about 07h30 on Saturday, whereafter he went to sleep, Amulungu added.He said by about 10h00 fellow detainees in the cell with David noticed he was having difficulty breathing.He died soon afterwards.His passing was being treated as a natural death, Amulungu said. The cells where David died came under severe criticism from Acting High Court Judge Hosea Angula two months ago, when he judged the conditions in the cells to have been so dirty and overcrowded when a group of theft suspects were held there in April 2003 that the suspects were in his view detained in an inhuman and degrading setting.Acting Judge Angula ruled that detention under such conditions was unlawful, since it violated the detainees’ constitutional right to human dignity.Police officers’ duty to take proper care of detainees also came under the spotlight in the High Court when five Okahandja residents, including two Police officers and a Police reservist, were convicted of culpable homicide in October 2002.In the first case of its kind in Namibia, the two Police officers were convicted of culpable homicide for having done nothing, since they failed to take action to have medical care provided to a detainee who later died in an Okahandja Police Station cell as a result of a brain injury that he sustained in an assault before his arrest.