Attempts by a Muslim prisoner serving 10 years to get the court to declare as unlawful his forced participation in a Christian parade inside prison have been dismissed.
Also dismissed has been David Al Min Mokgatle’s attempt to get the Court to declare that his denial of halaal food was unconstitutional and unlawful.
Al Min Mokgatle is serving ten years for murder.
He had also wanted the Court to declare as unconstitutional and unlawful state’s refusal to allow him to watch Muslim television channels.
He said it was irrational and unreasonable to prohibit him to use his own radio and computer.
Dismissing the application, Lobatse High Court Judge Michael Leburu said that prisoners depend on prison authorities for almost all of their daily needs hence prison authorities should not abuse them.
Prison authorities, he said, should be accountable for the manner in which they exercise their custody and control over inmates.
The judge further said that the difference between a prisoner and a free individual has to be reasonably justifiable.
He also added that prisoners should at all costs be protected from inhuman and degrading treatment.
Justice Leburu, however, said that there are restrictions that may be justified for security reasons, in particular the prevention of crime, escape and disorder and that it is for this reason that he emphasised that the impairment of prisoner’s right should be strictly minimized.
On submissions made by Mokgatle’s lawyer that he was forced to be part of a Christian parade every morning, which he says infringes on his conscience as a non Christian, Leburu said that this has been contradicted by a prison official.
The prison official he said has told the Court that the parades are not Christian or Muslim but assemblies where announcements are made and where prisoners are divided into groups in order to perform their daily tasks.
The judge said that in his view, Mokgatle as a prisoner detained at first Offenders Prison is under obligation to partake in those assemblies. On the other submission of denial of halaal meat , Justice Leburu said that prison officials have told the Court that only special dietary requirements as recommended by medical officers are given to inmates and that halaal food did not fall under such special dietary requirements. On this he said that it is his finding that non provision of halaal is not unconstitutional.
