Lawyers and human rights activists criticised the Tanzanian...

Lawyers and human rights activists criticised the Tanzanian government over inhuman treatment of prisoners, excessive use of police force and maintainance of bad laws. "The year 2002, was dominated with issues related to inhuman treatment of prisoners and misuse of police and military powers," the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) said in its annual report. The report deplored inhuman treatment of prisoners, crowded in prisons due to lack of facilities, and the poor handling of cases by magistrates and judges. "There are instances where it took 12 years for criminal suspects to be declared innocent by a court after they had languished in jail for that long," the report said. LHRC also cited the death last year from suffocation of 17 suspects in a police cell in the southern Tanzanian district of Rujewa where over 120 suspects were put in a room meant for 40 people. "Laws curtailing rights of children, women and employees, as well as those that provide for the death penalty continue to remain in our statute books," the report said.