Lawyer seeks bail for detained HIV-positive Zambians

Lebogang Mosikare | Thursday December 11, 2014 19:22

 

Counsel Moabi Madandume said this on yesterday when making an application for bail on behalf of two HIV positive Zambians jailed at the Francistown State Prison.

The two appeared before Senior Magistrate Thebeetsile Mulalu.

Earlier, chief magistrate Gaedupe Makgatho declined to grant the accused bail after they were allegedly found in possession of elephant tusks at Nata on August 8, 2014.

Madandume told the court that he was instructed by the accused on Tuesday that they have not been getting their ARV medication since their detention.

He said that the accused have not taken their medication since their arrest cautioning that ARVs should be taken as prescribed by the doctor, failure of which has disastrous consequences.

“It is also common knowledge that one will get some opportunistic infections by not taking their ARVs as per doctor’s instructions. Also people on ARVs and do not take them religiously develop resistance to the medication and consequently their CD4 count go down and they ultimately suffer from AIDS,” said the lawyer.

Madandume said because of no access to medication, one of his clients has developed some opportunistic infections.

“He is sweating, coughing and vomiting as a result of lack of medication. In my view I don’t think the state or society will benefit anything if the accused die in prison even before there are tried for crimes they allegedly committed.

 Prison authorities turned my request down for him to be taken to hospital to check his CD4 count,” said Madandume.

The defence counsel prayed with the court that under the peculiar circumstances that are obtaining, his clients should be given strict bail conditions to make sure that they will appear in court and to save their lives.

However, Inspector Kedibonye Motswakae who was standing on behalf of the substantive prosecutor opposed the bail application.

He said that the accused were arrested while on transit from the country.

Motswakae said that he would call the substantive prosecutor to come and tell the court why the accused were refused bail during their initial appearance in court.

Mulalu adjourned the matter to December 18 when the substantive prosecutor is expected to be present.