By Alex Bell
12 July 2010
Jailed diamond researcher Farai Maguwu was finally granted bail on Monday, more than five weeks since his arrest in early June.
Harare High Court Judge Mawadze Gurainesu dismissed claims made by state prosecutors that Maguwu would interfere with witnesses if he was released. The state had argued last week that the rights activist should remain detained until investigations into his alleged crime were completed. But Maguwu’s defence team urged the court to release their client, saying the state was “dragging its feet” in dealing with the case.
“In my view the charges are very simple, clear and straightforward,” the judge said. “They involve publication of falsehoods prejudicial to state. The presumption of innocence operates in favour of the appellant, in other words grounds for refusal of bail should be substantiated.”
Judge Gurainesu said Maguwu should pay US$1,500 to the clerk of court and ordered him not to travel beyond a 40-kilometre radius of his Mutare home. Maguwu was also ordered not to communicate in any form with the people involved in the case, who the state wants to question. This includes human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba whom the State alleges Maguwu communicated “falsehoods” with.
Maguwu, who heads the Mutare based Centre for Research and Development (CRD), is facing charges of communicating so-called ‘falsehoods’ deemed prejudicial to the state and if found guilty faces up to 20 years behind bars. No date for his trial has yet been set.
The CRD has been instrumental in exposing the ongoing abuse and corruption at the Chiadzwa diamond fields. Rights groups have been calling for Zimbabwe’s suspension from international diamond trade over the abuses. But the international trade watchdog, the Kimberley Process, last year decided to allow Zimbabwe more time to fall in line with minimum trade standards.
A set of guidelines were established to reach this goal, including the appointment of an approved monitor, to report back to Kimberley Process members on Zimbabwe’s efforts. That monitor Abbey Chikane, has since recommended that diamonds from Chiadzwa be given the legal certification from the Kimberley Process to allow their sale. This despite evidence given by Maguwu and other human rights groups that abuses are in fact continuing.
Chikane himself has been fingered as the instigator of Maguwu’s arrest, which happened shortly after a confidential meeting between the two men. Maguwu has said Chikane ‘shopped’ him to the police and it is widely believed that Maguwu’s ongoing detention has been a deliberate attempt to silence him.
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