The case of an inmate that was kidnapped and brutally abused by cell companions in Montevideo generates "shame," the Uruguayan Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber, in the midst of a controversy for the prison situation in the country.
"We come to take charge of this situation. It is a situation that hurts (...) gives us ashamed that in our country a case can happen," said the minister at the press conference.
The case was known last week through journalistic denunciations then confirmed by the Ministry of the Interior (MI). In a statement, the portfolio reported that, on Thursday afternoon, an inmate of 28 years was transferred to a nursing with a malnutrition picture.
"From the first inquiries it could be known that this person would have been extorted and mistreated by one or more cell companions for several days," he added.
According to journalistic versions, the inmate was tortured, private food and sexually abused for at least 40 days.
The ministry stressed that the situation of the inmate was unknown "despite the fact that the policemen will travel the module by reviewing the state of the bars."
Heber described the situation as "highly worrying" and reported that he ceased to the director in charge of the module in which the inmate was. Likewise, the portfolio arranged an internal investigation and filed a complaint with the prosecution.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary commissioner for the prisons, Juan Miguel Petit, declared that the man "was with a state of post-traumatic stress similar to that of a castaway or someone who lives an extreme hardship."
Petit, who has been denouncing violence and unhealthy conditions for years within the penitentiary system, assured that it is "a serious structural problem that the country has, a catastrophic structural failure" that transcends the different governments.
After a tour of several detention centers in 2018, the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture pointed out that living conditions in some Uruguayan prisons are "deplorable and unhealthy".
Date Of Update: 21 September 2021, 00:30
