Having been kept for 48 hours in a police holding cell, German investor Harald Fuhrmann is to launch a new campaign against the Bahamas, this time protesting against “inhuman” detention facilities.
Within hours of being fined $50 for presenting Attorney General Alfred Sears with his “sour lemon” award, which included a spray can of detergent and a yellow cup bearing the label ‘Justice Stinks’, the campaigner was back on the warpath.
Mr Sears said he feared for his life when Mr Fuhrmann approached him during a legal ceremony in Christ Church and handed him a cylinder. In fact, the “award” was Mr Fuhrmann’s way of drawing attention to what he regards as a corrupt Bahamian legal profession. He pleaded guilty to causing a minor disturbance and the court showed leniency.
However, before his appearance, Mr Fuhrmann said he was arrested and detained for two days to await a hearing. And he said the conditions were indescribably bad.
“After five minutes, you get an extreme headache because there is a terrible urine scent,” he said.
“I was held in a cell in East Street. There was no water to drink, nowhere to sleep and only grits and bologna sausage to eat. When people wanted to go to the toilet, the officers ignored them, so they urinated against the cell wall.
“Even worse, the cell was full of roaches and rodents. There is no flush toilet and when you eventually get into the toilet, after booking it in advance, the bowl is filthy brown.
“These detainees are treated like garbage and they haven’t even been before the court to establish their guilt or otherwise. It is a disgraceful situation.
“Those cells are a hell-hole. I needed a long shower to get the awful smell off my body.”
Crusade
Mr Fuhrmann, who has been waging a ten-year Internet crusade against some “corrupt” Bahamian attorneys, says he will now create more websites to expose inhuman detention facilities in the Bahamas.
“I have pictures and I intend to show how bad the Bahamas treats its own people. I have been amazed at how many Bahamians say they don’t like the Bahamas because of the corruption and injustice here.
“I intend to protest to the Minister of National Security Cynthia Pratt and also the police commissioner, Paul Farquharson.
“I was held with other prisoners for 48 hours and there was no air-conditioning, no place to sleep, nothing.
“There was one bench in the cell and four people were left arguing over who should use it to sleep on. I recently had a spinal operation and still suffer pain.
“People here are not treated like humans. This is an unsocial country. You have an elite arid a lower class, and the lower class is treated badly unless they can get help from a church or political group.”
Mr Fuhrmann said his campaign against Bahamian lawyers will now resume with even greater resolve.
He said: “There are more than 800 lawyers, but there is no law in this country. The brochures say there are British laws here, but that is all lies.
“The attorneys here are above the law. There is a buddybuddy system and no justice.”
Source: The Tribune, Nassau Bahamas
