However, the Committee considered that “National Unity’ under difficult
Political
circumstances
cannot be achieved
by attempting to muzzle
advocacy of multiparty democratic tenets and human rights and that the
author’s right to freedom of expression had therefore been violated.
Clearly, when a person is arrested without warrant or summons and then
simply kept in detention without any Court order, this also amounts to a
violation of the right to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention set
forth in Article 9(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR).
It is also evident that where a person is kept in detention in spite of a
judicial order of release, this is also contrary to Article
9(1) of the
Covenant. It is equally against the spirit of that article when a person is
rearrested
without
due
process
after release
from
initial
detention;
following the grant of bail as it renders the bail granted Superfluous.
The African Commission on Human Rights have also held that;
“indefinite detention of persons can be interpreted as arbitrary as the detainee
does not know the extent of his punishment, article 6 of the Charter had been
violated in this case because the victims concerned were detained indefinitely
after having protested against torture”
(See. ACHPR
Organization Contre La TOTURE
& ORS
Vs. Rwanda;
Communications NOS. 27/28, 47/91 and 99/93, decision adopted during
the 23rd ordinary session, October, 1996, para. 28.
In the same vein, it constitutes arbitrary deprivation of liberty within the
meaning of Article 6 of the African Charter to detain people without
charges and without possibility of bail in a case against Nigeria, the
victims had been held in these conditions for over three years following
33