A suspect in a criminal trial cannot be handcuffed without a reasonable ground to believe that he or she might be a risk to public safety and the safety of the police.

Absent a reasonable basis for suspicion, public handcuffing of a suspect is a flagrant violation of their dignity and an affront to common humanity.

Professor Merara Gudina is a well known academic, a veteran opposition leader, a high profile political prisoner, and a non-convict suspected of a non-violent crime. There is simply no justification whatsoever to handcuff such a suspect.

CAHDE believes that this is intended to (1) humiliate the defendant, (2) place undue pressure on his defense, and (3) break the spirit of defiance and resistance he has demonstrated so well since the trial began.

It is intended to humiliate him into submission and thereby conceal the dirty linen underneath this shabby spectacle of legality.