The bail application of the political detainees in remand for over a month now was postponed to Thursday after the defense team asked to review ministerial certificates issued by Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi. The certificates barred the judiciary from granting the MDC activists bail. Alex Muchadehama, one of the lawyers representing the detainees, said the state is deliberately making it more and more difficult for the defense team to represent their clients properly.

The bail hearing of the 32 was supposed to have been heard Wednesday but Muchadehama said: “We found out that in most of the cases the Minister of Home Affairs had planted in the files – ministerial certificates, which we had not been made aware of.” He said this is what necessitated the postponement so that the defense team could study the documents. The lawyer said along with the ‘flimsy reasons’ raised by Minister Mohadi in denying the detainees bail, Mohadi is equating the September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA with the so-called petrol bomb attacks in Zimbabwe. The lawyer said here is yet another example of a minister interfering with the work of the judiciary.

Since there are too many cases, the court also agreed to group the detainees into clusters of 15 people so that they could be heard in groups. Bail hearings are expected on Thursday and Friday.

The detainees, including the MDC Presidential Assistant Ian Makone, Member of Parliament Paul Madzore and their information officer Luke Tamborinyoka, have been in custody for more than a month without a proper trial. MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti said: “Some are critically ill, but their conditions are allowed to continue to deteriorate in the lice infected prisons.” Another opposition official, Morgan Komichi is said to be critical and fighting for his life.

The authorities have started targeting court officers, which led to the arrest of Muchadehama and his colleague Andrew Makoni on Friday. The two lawyers spent three days in filthy police cells on allegations of obstructing the course of justice. Even government court officials are also being targeted.

It’s reported that a representative of the Attorney General, state prosecutor Richard Chikosha was beaten and detained overnight on Saturday for consenting to a court order.

The state controlled Herald Newspaper also reported that three detectives from Harare Central Police Station have been arrested for allegedly supplying Muchadehama and Makoni with false information about the petrol-bombing of Zanu PF offices in Mbare. According to the paper the three allegedly told the defense team that the case was stage-managed by Zanu PF members as a political gimmick. Muchadehama said he could not comment about these reports as the matter is in the courts. He however said the intimidation of state officials like the prosecutor “clearly show that we are living in a rogue state.”

He said: “It means even where people have an opportunity to do what is correct but because you are living in a rogue state you’d rather do what is wrong because you’ll be afraid.”

Meanwhile, Tendai Biti urged African and Southern African leaders to pay attention to the current crisis in Zimbabwe and call for an extra-ordinary summit on Zimbabwe to condemn these atrocities. He said: “We ask the facilitator of the SADC dialogue, President Thabo Mbeki to realize that no dialogue can take place in an environment full of fascism and violence perpetrated by the state. It is our view that turning a blind eye on this state-sponsored violence and atrocities is tantamount to fertilizing impunity.”