Zimbabwe journalist’s bail application postponed

By Violet Gonda
7 May 2009

A High Court Judge has postponed the bail application of journalist Shadreck Manyere, MDC Director of Security Chris Dhlamini, and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s former aide Gandhi Mudzingwa, because the State said it needed more time to prepare a response. This is in spite of the fact that 13 other co-accused persons, including Jestina Mukoko, were finally freed on bail on Wednesday.

They are all facing charges of terrorism, insurgence, banditry and sabotage under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. The defence team believes the three are deliberately being used as pawns in a political game.

High Court Judge Justice November Mtshiya postponed the matter to Friday after the State requested the postponement. State prosecutor Chris Mutangadura had initially wanted the matter to be postponed to Monday to prepare their response. He claimed they had been served the papers late Wednesday afternoon, but the defence argued that Monday was too far and that the prosecutor was seeking to prolong the incarceration of his clients who have been in detention since their abduction last year. The accused persons’ lawyer Alex Muchadehama said they had tried to serve the AG’s office the bail application papers on Tuesday, but an officer there had refused them, resulting in the delay.

Another defence lawyer Charles Kwaramba told SW Radio Africa, the State will continue to oppose the release of the journalist and the MDC officials because they want to treat them differently from the rest of the broader group of abductees. “When we went to the Attorney General’s office yesterday, the AG made it very clear that they don’t want to treat these ones the same. He could only tell us that these three have their own controversies. Those were his words. We tried to ask what controversies he was referring to but he didn’t divulge.”

Manyere, Dhlamini and Gandhi remain detained in hospital.

The defence team believes the three are ‘hostages,’ and are being used as pawns in the political games as there is no evidence to support the State’s charges against them. Kwaramba said: “If you look at the facts, after they were indicted for court …there is not even any evidence in respect of their case.”
He said in the case of the other 13, ‘some sort of witnesses’ are being talked about but in the case of the hospitalised three, ‘there is nothing, and yet they are the ones who are being treated differently and being denied bail. So I think they are hostages.”

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the authorities to release the journalist, who was the last remaining abductee to leave Chikurubi Maximum Prison after spending four months in jail. He was re-arrested a few days after having been granted bail on 17 April.

The journalist has received massive support from fellow colleagues, which has resulted in a government organised media conference being postponed following a boycott by journalists in solidarity with him.
The journalist was also last week awarded the 2009 Foreign Journalist’s award by the U.S. based National Association of Black Journalists.

The President of the Black Journalists Association said this year's prize recognised the ‘bravery and courage’ of Manyere, and called attention to the plight of many imprisoned journalists across Africa and the world.