Cape Town – Police have provided clarification on their policy regarding the treatment of suspects being transported to and from courts.
The clarification came after a video surfaced showing an unrestrained Dr Nandipha Magudumana being escorted into the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court earlier this week for her brief appearance in the Thabo Bester case.
She was holding her belongings.
The video raised questions about preferential treatment.
But the police said that suspects could not be restrained while sitting in the back of a vehicle in order to prevent injuries during transportation, Times Live reported.
The police explained that the transportation and treatment of each suspect took into account factors such as flight risk, seriousness of charges, and surrounding circumstances.
STAGED: Dear @SAPoliceService you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time #DrNandiphaMagudumana pic.twitter.com/Cxaf2KFQty
— Mzilikazi wa Afrika (@IamMzilikazi) June 21, 2023
“The risk profile of every suspect in custody is considered. This includes the flight risk, seriousness of the offences a person is charged with and surrounding circumstances. She is a flight risk and the charges she is facing are serious.
“Given the suspect profile, she is escorted at all times when attending court by highly trained and skilled members who only respond to medium and high risk incidents. As is seen in the video, she is being escorted closely by a TRT [tactical response team] female member.
“According to police policy, a person in custody must not be handcuffed or have leg chains on while in the back of a patrol van as he or she may be injured during transportation.
“Police vans are equipped with a secure canopy at the back to accommodate people in custody. The canopy is equipped with padlocks and is at all times locked with the padlock when people with high risk profiles are being transported,” the report quoted National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe as saying.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
