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Bartica cops in police brutality probe

Nov 04, 2009 News

A top police official has confirmed that two ranks at the Bartica Police Station are being investigated for allegedly beating a 28-year-old man while interrogating him about a stolen computer.
Cedric Babb, of Fourth Avenue, Bartica, has alleged that three CID ranks struck him in the stomach with a piece of wood and placed his head in a plastic bag until he lost consciousness.
Babb said that the beating occurred last week Thursday in a room at the Bartica Police Station. He alleged that the assault continued even as he repeatedly denied having knowledge of the stolen computer.
Babb, who was hospitalised for a day, said that he subsequently identified the three CID ranks while giving a statement to the officer in charge at the Bartica Police Station.
Contacted on Monday, a senior police official confirmed that Babb’s allegation is being investigated, but said that Babb had only implicated two police ranks.
The officials also confirmed that Babb was hospitalised but a doctor who examined him found no injuries.
According to the official, the accused ranks have denied Babb’s allegation. A report on the incident is expected to be completed on Friday.
Babb, who said he is a carpenter, alleged that his troubles began last week Tuesday when he went to the Bartica Magistrate’s Court on charges that he had bought two stolen cell phones.
After speaking with an attorney, a CID rank reportedly told Babb that he wanted to see Babb in his office.
According to Babb, the rank accused him of buying a stolen computer, an allegation that the Bartica resident said he repeatedly denied.
Another CID rank then allegedly informed Babb that he was being charged with break-and enter and larceny and ordered him to sign a statement, which Babb said he refused to do.
“He say ‘well take off yuh belt and shoes, yuh going in the f—ing lockups,” Babb said
Shortly after, Babb said he was placed in the lockups.
On Thursday, he was taken to a room that was occupied by three CID ranks, and again denied buying the stolen computer after the ranks began interrogating him again.
Babb alleged that at that point, one of the policemen began to hit him.
“A short one start cuffing me in me belly and saying ‘where the computer deh?’”
“After they start cuffing me, they put a plastic bag over my head.” Babb said that he began to have difficulty breathing and tore off the plastic bag.
However, the policemen, he alleged, tied another plastic bag over his head and he eventually lost consciousness.
The policemen reportedly revived Babb by throwing water on him and the brutal interrogation continued as he sat in a chair, he said.
“They pick up a wood and hit me in my stomach and I fall out the chair and start hollering.”
Babb said he later learned that persons who had heard his screams informed his relatives, who were outside the station.
Babb alleged that after questioning him further, the CID ranks put him in the female lockups, to ensure that no one could see his condition.
But he said that they eventually took him outside the station and he managed to signal to relatives that he had been beaten.
According to Babb, he was again taken to a room where the ranks attempted to make him sign a statement, which he refused to do.
He was then taken back to the lockups, although he was suffering from severe stomach pains and was bleeding through the nostrils.
The man claimed he was finally released after his father contacted the officer in charge at the station.
He alleged that it was only then that the police took him to the Bartica Hospital, where he was admitted. Babb said he remained there until Friday.
“But then they lock me up again, and say that I telling people that police beating me.”
According to Babb, he was eventually released on $50,000 station bail but was informed that he would be charged.
The allegations of police brutality come at a time when police rank at the Leonora Police Station are under investigation for torturing a 14-year-old boy and refusing to inform his relatives of his whereabouts.

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