Zimbabwean abductees re-arrested, pending trial

By Violet Gonda
5 May 2009

Human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and 14 other abductees were back in jail on Tuesday, after having been formally charged in the Magistrate’s Court on Monday. At that hearing their trials were set into three separate cases, for the months of June and July, and the Attorney General's offices immediately made a submission to have their bail terminated, using provisions of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act. The prosecutors used a legal technicality that revokes bail if a person is formally charged, unless the Attorney General agrees to remand them out of custody.

On Tuesday Magistrate Catherine Chimhanda remanded them all in custody, including 70 year old Fidelis Chiramba. Lawyer Charles Kwaramba said it is believed 15 activists have now been taken back to Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison. Freelance journalist Shadreck Manyere, plus MDC officials Chris Dhlamini and Gandhi Mudzingwa, are still being ‘detained’ in hospital where they are receiving treatment for their injuries from torture during their incarceration.

The State views the re-detentions as legal, but rights groups and the MDC say this is an unjustified attack that undermines the entire Global Political Agreement that created the unity government. Kwaramba said the Magistrate did an astonishing u-turn on Tuesday despite the fact that on Monday she had agreed to defer the matter, to allow the defence team to get clarification from the Attorney General’s Office. But Kwaramba said on Tuesday the Magistrate basically said she was not going to entertain any submissions from anyone. He said an urgent High Court appeal is exepcted to be heard on Thursday.

The courthouse was packed Tuesday with journalists, members of civil society and the diplomatic community, who were left shocked after the Magistrate remanded the accused persons in custody. Eyewitnesses said Mukoko looked pale and dejected when she heard the news. The accused persons were all abducted and tortured between the months of October and December last year.

The AG’s office claims there is compelling new evidence and that the individuals pose a flight risk as a result of the ‘serious charges they are facing.’ This is in spite of the fact that none of them had fled the country after they were released on bail two months ago.

On Monday lawyer Andrew Makoni said they had submitted that there was no basis to re-detain their clients and that the AG's office was making unilateral decisions in trying to cancel a political agreement that had been made by the Principals to the unity government, to have them all released on bail, pending trial.

They had hoped to bring in officers from the AG's office and members of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC), to show that there had been a political agreement to grant bail. Despite being a monitoring body, it is understood that there were no members of JOMIC, not even those from the Tsvangirai led MDC, turned up to court on Tuesday.

JOMIC member and MDC-T MP Tabitha Khumalo told SW Radio Africa that she had only just been informed of the present developments, by a member of civil society and was making her way to Harare from Bulawayo. She said the chairmanship of JOMIC rotates on a monthly basis and last month it was in the hands of ZANU PF. The MP said ZANU PF does not care about the detainees’ issues and therefore did not call for a meeting. She hopes that the matter will be discussed this month when the chairmanship of JOMIC is taken over by the MDC-M.

Meanwhile the MDC issued a strongly worded statement expressing shock over “the blatant disregard of human rights shown by the State” against the 18 activists who face “trumped-up charges of banditry, terrorism and insurgency.”

The party said: “Today’s ruling seriously threatens not only the life and health of the inclusive government, but its longevity and durability. Today’s ruling is a flagrant disregard to the commitments and agreements by the three principals to the GPA. Today’s ruling slams shut the door of international goodwill. It undermines and threatens the goodwill that the inclusive government had begun to enjoy on the continent and the broader international community.”

According to the MDC, seven of their activists are still missing after they were abducted by State security agents in November and December last year.

One of the critical outstanding issues at the ongoing talks between the Principals, is the freeing of prisoners and the latest development shows that the Mugabe regime is not serious about respecting human rights and restoring the rule of law. Analysts say this is a clear indication that the regime is determined to block the progress of the inclusive government, as ZANU PF knows it will not exist in a free society.

Meanwhile, questions are now being asked about what Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is going to do about this and whether the guarantors of this unity deal, SADC and the African Union, will finally do something.