Amnesty International in Canada is citing allegations of police brutality of two robbery suspects to ring alarm bells about the possible existence of torture in Barbados.
And the global human rights body is urging Canadians to flood Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs Adriel Brathwaite, Acting Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith and High Commissioner in Canada Evelyn Greaves with letters, emails and faxes insisting on a probe into claims made by Adrian Mottley and Jamar Headley that they were beaten and injured by cops, denied access to their own attorney, and each forced to sign a confession at Hastings Police Station in Christ Church in March after they had voluntarily turned themselves in.
“Two men [who] are suspects in a robbery [and] have reportedly been tortured while in police custody in the district of Christ Church,” said Amnesty International.
However, when contacted yesterday, Brathwaite said while he could confirm they had received correspondence from Amnesty International, he was not aware of any investigation by local authorities into the allegations.
Meanwhile, secretary general of Amnesty in Canada, Alex Neve, revealed that a few days ago he used the incident in Barbados to draw national Canadian attention to what he described as “the epidemic of torture around the world” and to his organisation’s efforts to eliminate it as well as to nudge Canada into urgent anti-torture action. (TB/MB)
