adminBLANTYRE. — Fourteen sex workers arrested by police in Malawi and forced to take HIV tests launched a fresh bid to seek damages in court yesterday. The group was detained in 2009, hauled to a government hospital for HIV testing without their consent, and the results were disclosed in an open court.
“My clients are seeking damages as compensation for violation of their constitutional rights and trauma suffered as a result of actions of the police and a hospital,” lawyer David Matupika Banda, told AFP after a brief court hearing.
Neither the sex workers nor the state lawyers were present in the High Court yesterday, where lawyers made a fresh attempt to sue the government.
It was not immediately clear how much they are demanding.
The prostitutes, who all tested positive, were charged with offering sexual services while carrying the HIV. They were set free after paying a fine equivalent to US$7.
In 2011, they sued the government for violating their privacy and filed for a judicial review of their 2009 case.
But more than two years later, the case has not come up for hearing.
The sex workers “feel aggrieved by the decision of the police to subject them to mandatory medical tests that included HIV tests without their consent,” said the lawyer.
“They feel the decision was unlawful as it infringed upon (their) . . . right to dignity, the right to privacy and it amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” Banda said.
Police have argued having the women tested was an integral part of their investigation. — AFP.
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