PDO detainee recalls four months in ‘hell’

For four months, PDO de­tainee Dil­lon Chotoo says he slept in a leak­ing 20-foot con­tain­er cell at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre (ECRC) in San­ta Rosa, sur­round­ed by rats and cock­roach­es, some­times with­out run­ning wa­ter and, at one point, with a clogged toi­let filled with waste that re­mained un­us­able for days.

Then his Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­der (PDO) was re­voked, and he walked out of prison with­out an ex­pla­na­tion and with­out be­ing charged.

Chotoo, who was re­leased last Fri­day, de­scribed his de­ten­tion un­der the State of Emer­gency (SoE) as “hell” and said he is now seek­ing an apol­o­gy from Gov­ern­ment and in­tends to take le­gal ac­tion against the State.