” I’ve lost count of the days. I don’t remember when I should get out, I just know that I had to serve my sentence. “When asked in the columns of the Samoa Observer, Sio Agafili is still struggling to recover from the miscarriage of justice of which he was the victim. The father of three children, the 45 year-old male was sentenced in November 2008 to seven years in prison for the crime of burglary, and the volume
A month later, he is condemned for the same reason, to five years in prison in another case. According to the law samoan, these two sentences were to be served simultaneously and Sio Agafili had to be released since December 2015. But they were eventually accumulated, and his stay behind bars has been extended without reason. A judge of the supreme Court has recognized this error, while Sio Agafili was held during an assault which had been committed during an escape from mass at the prison of Tanumalala, where he was being held. It has finally been released in the past week, after spending four years and eight months in prison.
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“He saw nothing”
“Nobody told me when my prison sentence would end,” says the principal. “He has been imprisoned illegally, accuses Muriel Him, his lawyer, and with RNZ Pacific. “It is not realized anything. He does not realize that it was supposed to be simultaneous, and this has been repeated that when he was sentenced for the offence current of which he is accused. “It has announced that it intends to seek compensation for his client. “His right to liberty under article 6 of our Constitution has been completely violated “, she said, fearing that other prisoners are in the same situation as Sio Agafili to Samoa. “This is not the first case of this type. “
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According to RNZ Pacific, the prison system of Samoa has regularly been criticised in recent years for violation of the rights of prisoners (minors would, for example, incarcerated with adults), corruption, overcrowding, or lack of direction. A series of escapes has caused the dissolution of the prison service in march last. A wide-ranging reform has been promised by the department of Police, now in charge of the prison system.
