British media reports that U.K. citizen Shaun Magee is being held under preventive detention in the Dominican Republic without formal charges. In addition, a Dominican judge has stated that there is no evidence to support his confinement. Shaun now joins tens of thousands of people fighting for their lives within a Dominican justice system that has been internationally condemned for its human rights violations.
On April 26th, Magee was departing the Dominican Republic after a vacation when he was detained for unknowingly overstaying his tourist visa. Upon arrest, Dominican authorities charged Shaun with drug offenses despite having no evidence to do so. Earlier this month, it was reported that a Dominican judge confirmed the court had no evidence against Magee. Nonetheless, Magee remains under preventive detention as the Public Ministry was given “52 days to charge him.”
Kimberly Magee, Shaun’s wife, detailed in a Facebook post the abuse he has been enduring at the hands of Dominican authorities. She said Shaun is being “beaten with bats” and denied communication with the outside world for days at a time. As a result of being forced to drink unsanitary water, he has contracted parasites and is being denied proper medical care by prison staff.
According to Kimberly, the British Embassy in Santo Domingo is aware of the situation and is working to get Shaun the care he needs. The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office stated, “We are providing support to a British man detained in the Dominican Republic and are in contact with local authorities.”
Shaun is, unfortunately, another example of why the Public Ministry has earned widespread condemnation from international human rights monitoring organizations.
“Dominican Style Justice” for Shaun
According to Dominican criminal procedural law, preventive detention is to be used only in limited and extreme circumstances. Shaun, however, was subjected to preventive detention despite being informed there was no evidence against him. This case highlights an unsettling truth – in the Dominican Republic preventive detention is not the “exception” but rather the standard practice. The newly adopted 98% rule, is only further evidence of this as 98% of proposed coercive measures within the first four months of 2024 were preventive detention orders.
Illegal practices like this have made the Dominican Republic one of the top countries in the world for the abuse of preventive detention. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has identified the abuse of preventive detention as the primary driver behind the near-collapse of the Dominican prison system. Shaun has become part of a system designed to hold 12,000 inmates at full capacity, but that actually has 26,000 inmates due to preventive detention cases like his. The severe overcrowding in turn also fuels deplorable human rights violations.
A Dominican Penitentiary System Marred with Human Rights Violations
Recently, the Dominican Republic’s National Public Defense Office (ONDP) released its 2023 Prison and Detention Report, highlighting the many concerns raised by international human rights monitors such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD). Issues including the accumulation of sewage, widespread disease, a shortage of medical supplies and care, and recurring reports of inmate physical abuse are unfortunately common throughout Dominican prisons. These reports underscore the dire humanitarian crisis and the desperate need for intervention.
Shaun Magee is not the first foreign national to be illegally detained in the Dominican Republic, and he will certainly not be the last. International pressure on the Dominican government and the Public Ministry must persist to end a grave humanitarian crisis that shows no signs of improving.