Two South African lawyers still behind bars in Tanzania without being charged
The chances of two South African lawyers arrested last week Tuesday in Tanzania being released any time soon are minimal‚ as the East African country has yet to charge them.The lawyers‚ who cannot be named‚ are being kept in custody without being charged along with one Ugandan and nine other Tanzanian lawyers. The 12 were allegedly preparing for a case challenging the Tanzanian government’s decision to ban drop-in centres that served people particularly at risk of contracting HIV."The challenge we have is that we are engaging with people who are operating outside the confines of the law. In this case‚ because they are doing things arbitrarily‚ we are waiting for [Tanzanian authorities] to decide whether or not they are charging them‚ because they haven’t done so‚" Matilda Lasseko, of the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa, said."The scary bit for us‚ is that had [authorities] been operating within legal confines‚ then we would be able to say [when the lawyers would be rel...
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