By Staff Reporter
The Women’s Lawyers Association, has expressed disappointment over government’s delay in compensating 18 women that were allegedly assaulted by police officers in Lilongwe.
In March this year, the High Court in Lilongwe ordered Malawi Police Service to compensate the women that were assaulted by police officers in Nsundwe, Mbwatalika and Mpingu Townships on October 8 2019.
The High Court ordered the Malawi Police Service to pay the women monetary compensations ranging from K4 million to K10 million each.
However, government is yet to honour the order, according to Atupele Masanjala, Public Relations of the Association the association will keep on pushing the office of the Attorney General-in order to fast track the payments.
No police officers have been charged over the incident. During the violence that followed presidential elections in 2019, police were deployed to a township in the capital Lilongwe. Security personnel used teargas and attacked the public. The NGO Gender Coordination Network (NGO-GCN) documented accounts from women and girls from the area who said they had been sexually assaulted by officers.
Last year the Women Lawyers Association of Malawi filed a legal complaint against the police over failure to take action against officers accused of the attacks.
The high court ruled that compensation should be given.
The court also ordered the police to investigate the officers named in the allegations. Richard Chimwendo Banda, minister of homeland security,promised then that officers would appear before an independent police commission.
