Mohamed lying outside the Hospital
By Mohamed Vandi in Kenema
A young man with a swollen stomach, recently released from prison on medical advice,has been left in the open, outside the Kenema Government Hospital.
Mohamed Bockarie told Politico that he had had “anal sex for the most part of his nine month stay in prison”, adding that: “That is why my stomach looks this way”.
He was convicted and jailed for unlawful carnal knowledge, a legal explanation for being in possession of contraband weed consume as drugs.
From outside the hospital premises where he lay on a bare metal bed, Bockarie claimed to have been abandoned there without medical care. “Homosexuality is a common practice and a means of survival in the prisons,” he alleged, adding that the place was really crowded.
“I am sick. The prison authorities brought me here and left me to suffer,” he complained.
Meanwhile, Deputy Regional Director at the Kenema prisons, Pious John, has dismissed claims of homosexuality being practiced in the prisons. He said that the act was widespread was not to their knowledge as authorities.
Mr. John said other people would have reported the matter if it were true. He said that three other inmates were also recently released from the prison as per medical advice but added that none of them made any such complaints.
He explained that it was the responsibility of the relatives to seek medical attention for released prisoners because all charges against them would have been dropped by then.
“We are very concerned about the health of the prisoners and we always ensure that those who are sick are taken to the hospital for treatment,” the prison director stated.
He said Bockarie’s swollen stomach should not be attributed to the act of homosexuality. He claimed that when the sick prisoner was last visited in prisons by the medical superintendent at the Kenema Government Hospital, Dr. Christian Pratt, his report showed that it was actually a case of liver failure.
Although he admitted to claims that the prisons were indeed overcrowded, John pointed out that “food is not a problem as the prisoners eat to their satisfaction.”
© Politico 11/02/15
