A Malawi court recognised as “torture” a case in which a 13-year-old boy lost both hands after being tied up in police custody, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) said on Friday.
The child was held in police custody in the small southern African nation for multiple days in January 2024 after he was accused of stealing money.
Police officers kept his hands tied together tightly with a rubber belt, leading to poor blood circulation and ultimately requiring the amputation of both limbs.
A court in April this year found two policemen guilty of causing grievous harm. But Malawi’s Penal Code does not criminalise torture as a separate offence under domestic law, and the court stopped short of qualifying the abuse as such.
The High Court on Thursday ruled that the police’s “use of excessive harsh action amounted to torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment … and was therefore unlawful and unconstitutional”, said the SALC, which supported the boy’s case.
The legal nonprofit called the court’s order a “step towards justice” but only a “partial victory” in the absence of criminal prosecution of torture.
Prosecutors in the past have relied on offences such as assault or grievous harm, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment.
But these charges “do not fully capture the seriousness and gravity of torture or any cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment”, the SALC said.
“A correct legal characterisation is not only symbolic but crucial to achieve accountability and prevent such acts,” it added.
Malawi ratified the global Convention against Torture in 1996 and its Constitution prohibits the practice.
But its penal code is “outdated” and riddled with “persistent legislative gaps”, according to the World Organisation Against Torture.
In December last year, six police officers were convicted of murder for torturing to death a suspect in custody.
