Police tortured rights lawyer, HRW says

A prominent Liberian human rights lawyer, Tiawan Gongloe, was brutalised in police custody and is hospitalised as a result, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. HRW said Gongloe appeared to have been arrested in connection with a speech he gave at a March 2002 conference in Guinea on peace in the Mano River Union. The speech - a copy of which can be found at- http://www.newdemocrat.org, dealt with ways in which civil society could play a role in the attainment of peace in the Mano River Union. In it, the human rights lawyer condemned the use of violence as a means to achieve state power. On Wednesday, the day of Gongloe's arrest, the government ordered the closure of The Analyst, a Liberian newspaper which had just printed his speech, HRW noted. "The government of Charles Taylor is using violence to silence independent voices speaking out about Liberia's deteriorating human rights record," Peter Takirambudde, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division, said. "President Taylor is tightening his repressive grip, and Liberians who call on the government to respect human rights are getting in his way." HRW said Gongloe, who is locally well known for his representation of clients in human rights cases and for speaking out against security force abuses, was stopped in his car on Wednesday by a police officer, arrested, and taken to police headquarters, where he was interrogated about the statement he had made at the conference in Guinea. After being questioned briefly, he was stripped naked and placed in a cell in the basement, where two plainclothes policemen severely beat and kicked him through the night, according to HRW. They also threatened him, telling him he was a dissident whom they would deal with, and that they would kill him, HRW said. On Thursday, he was taken again for questioning, but was unable to stand or sit as a result of his injuries, HRW said. Lawyers who had been notified of his whereabouts pressured the police to hospitalise him. Human Rights Watch said Gongloe was receiving treatment at Cooper Hospital in Monrovia and that, as a result of the torture, he had lost some hearing in his left ear, his left eye was swollen and bloodied, and his head and body were badly bruised. Two police officers remained on guard outside his hospital room, it said, recalling that, on Thursday, Police Director Paul Mulbah had reportedly said on radio that he would remain in police custody while police investigations continued. "Clearly, Mr. Gongloe remains at great risk of further police brutality and harassment," Takirambudde said. "President Charles Taylor must immediately end this harassment and intimidation of rights activists." HRW said the incident was the latest in a spate of government sanctioned arrests since it imposed a state of emergency on 8 February 2002. In the face of renewed rebel action and negative international publicity, the government had become increasingly intolerant of criticism, intensifying its harassment and intimidation of the independent press, civil society groups, and political opposition groups, the rights watchdog said.