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  • Tue. Nov 5th, 2024

Five-month-old Tevy was born and died in jail amidst Cambodia’s war on drugs

Five-month-old Tevy was born and died in jail amidst Cambodia’s war on drugs

In a bursting cell of Phnom Penh’s females’s jail, baby Tevy was injured– a fracture to her thighbone, allegedly caused by a female prisoner.

Key points:

  • Cambodia’s war on drugs is rife with accusations of torture and human rights abuses
  • 73 per cent of ladies detainees are held on drug charges
  • Sweeping arrests have actually caused persistent overcrowding in prisons

Simply over a week later on, after oscillating in between jail and medical facility, Tevy– not her genuine name– was struggling to breathe and place on oxygen.

The five-month-old baby lady, who had actually lived the totality of her young life behind bars, passed away on January26 Her autopsy pointed out pneumonia and poor nutrition, however the death in custody wouldn’t be revealed till a month later on.

The case, brought to light by human rights group Licadho, is just among the destructive effects of Cambodia’s war on drugs, which has seen more than 55,000 people apprehended in a couple of brief years– Tevy’s mother amongst them.

Human rights supporters state she needs to never ever have been locked up. She had actually not been convicted of a criminal activity, but authorities declare they found her carrying a little sachet of methamphetamine– worth about $3.60– in mid-2019

A baby with black hair pictured crawling in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Rights groups state infants like Tevy ought to never have actually been in prison and pregnant women need to not be imprisoned for months without trial.( Flickr: Nalin A)

She was pregnant at the time of her arrest and gave birth while jailed, awaiting trial. She was still waiting for a court date when her infant passed away.

The anti-drug project has actually led to extreme overcrowding in the kingdom’s jails and has actually had a disproportionate effect on females, according to an Amnesty International report launched previously this month.

Since the war on drugs started in 2017, the variety of prisoners has actually escalated by 78 percent, the report stated, with practically 40,000 people put behind bars in a country where prisons have capacity for simply over 26,500 It’s approximated thousands more are held in shadowy “rehabilitation” centres.

Amnesty’s regional director for the Asia-Pacific, Nicholas Bequelin, stated individuals suspected of using drugs “are almost undoubtedly convicted regardless of their regret”.

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The confined and unhygienic conditions have actually sparked worries the jails might end up being incubators for COVID-19

” If one person got a respiratory infection, within a few days everyone in the cell got it. It was a breeding place for disease,” Long, a previous detainee at

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