Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights provides: “Every individual shall have right to liberty and to the security of his person. No one may be deprived of his freedom except for reasons and conditions previously laid down by law. In particular, no one may be arbitrarily arrested or detained”. The concept of freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention dates back to the Magna Carta wherein Article 39 provides: “No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseized of his freedom, or liberties, or free customs or be outlawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed, nor will we not pass upon him nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land” The 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of man and the citizen provides under Article 7 that no man may be indicted, arrested or detained except in cases determined by law and according to the forms which it has prescribed.” The UN Committee on the study of the Rights of everyone to be free from Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, and Exile defines Arrest as “The act of taking a person into custody under the authority of the law or by compulsion of another kind and includes the period from the moment he is placed under restraint up to the time he is brought before an authority competent to order his continued custody or to release him” and defines detention as the act of confining a person to certain place, whether or not in continuation of arrest and under restraint which prevent him from living with his family or carrying out his normal occupational or social activities. Article 9(4) of ICCPR provides: 40