NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – The Bahamas government says it will “comprehensively” respond to a report by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) that called on the authorities here to do more to ensure people under arrest are given access to legal representation.
“The Working Group interviewed numerous detainees who were deprived of any legal representation at the initial stages of the proceedings because they did not have the financial means,” the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in its preliminary report.
But National Security Minister Wayne Munroe, in criticizing the WGAD report, said the experts did not provide proof of many of their accusations about the country’s criminal justice system.
Munroe said he found the report alarming, adding that it had inconsistencies.
“This report says that the evidential threshold to prove that a confession resulted from ill-treatment is high. The group reports that an accused has to prove that he was beaten. That is not the law in this country, as you all know. The law in this country is that we must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the confession was taken without oppression,” Munroe said, urging citizens to trust law enforcement and not the “adverse” report findings.
“One thing I would advise the public against, If you have to choose who you believe, you do yourself a disservice if you choose to believe an adverse report against the very persons who you will call when somebody is at your door, who you will call when you hear gunshots in the night, who you will call when you feel threatened,” he said.
“So, when you decide whose account to believe, I just want you to take into account that the prisoner, the criminal, would always like you to silence your watchdog.”
The WGAD visited the country from November 27 to December 9, visited ten facilities, and interviewed over 130 detained people.
In its report, the WGAD also said that people are too often arrested without a warrant, and arrests are sometimes based on outdated or expired warrants. It also found that detainees are often detained for longer than 48 hours without court-granted extensions.
“The Working Group received information that some detainees suffered vision loss due to their detention in darkness,” the report said, also noting recurrent complaints about detainees’ inability to access medical care and the absence of treatment for drug-dependent people.
“The Working Group concludes that conditions of detention do not meet international standards,” the report said, adding that detainees do not spend enough time outside in fresh air.
Regarding prison conditions, the Working Group highlighted familiar concerns about overcrowding at the prison, particularly in the maximum-security section, where slop buckets are still used, and there is a lack of running water and adequate sanitation.
But Munroe said the government would comprehensively respond to the report when the document is released.
The WGAD found that detainees are often detained for 48 hours without court-granted extensions. Still, Munroe responded, “They speak about persons being detained for more than five days.
“Well, anybody who does the math would know that if you are charged on a Friday having been in custody for five days, there is no court to bring you before on a Saturday or a Sunday, so you will end up being in custody for seven days.”
He also took issue with other aspects of the preliminary report, saying, “My question would be, who is giving them this alert? If it is the person arrested, that’s not a responsible way to critique persons.
“If you say that persons have been arrested on outdated warrants, it behooves you to produce the proof of it. If you say I arrest someone on an outdated warrant, that’s a piece of paper that exists as a fact. I’m not a betting man, but I’m almost willing to bet that they didn’t look at one actual warrant,” Munroe told reporters.
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