Police fail to take tortured student leader to court

9 August 2007
By Violet Gonda

Clever Bere, the president of the students’ union at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), is still in police custody after police failed to take him to court on Thursday. The Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (ZINASU) says the badly beaten student leader is being denied full access to his lawyer and medical treatment. Bere was arrested on Monday in Bulawayo.

ZINASU secretary general Beloved Chiweshe said: “He suffered the same experience that student leaders go through. Torture, the beatings and accusations of being surrogates of the opposition. And he was denied access to the courts so that he could have his case heard.”

Chiweshe said the process of being arrested is being used as a form of punishment against those who are seen to be opposing the ruling party. Bere is being accused of resisting police arrest and contempt of court, but the students’ body said these are malicious allegations as he was never informed about any case pending and was not evading any arrest as he has always been on campus attending classes.

The ZINASU secretary general said these are merely signs of vindictiveness being shown by the police to counter student protests, expected when universities open in a few weeks time. The deteriorating standard of education at state universities has been a major problem for the students’ movement for several years now.