State determined to deny bail to political detainees

By Violet Gonda
14 April 2009

After his swearing in on 11th February, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai stated in front of thousands of supporters at Glamis Stadium: "It hurts that as we celebrate here today there are some who are in prison. I can assure you that they are not going to remain in those dungeons any day or any week longer.”
But more than two months after that statement his Director of Security, his former personal assistant and a freelance journalist are still in police custody, over what are clearly trumped up political charges.

While the MDC has tried very hard to accommodate ZANU PF, calling for the removal of targeted sanctions against the Mugabe regime and other supportive measures, ZANU PF seems not to have moved an inch since the formation of the inclusive government. Robert Mugabe continues to make unilateral decisions, such as the appointment of permanent secretaries and the recent changes he’s made to Nelson Chamisa’s information ministry.

Despite the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) trying to persuade the authorities not to oppose bail for the three accused persons, the State went ahead and opposed bail, on the very day that it was granted to the detainees by the High Court last Thursday.
On Tuesday the State - represented by the Attorney General’s office – went ahead and filed an urgent High Court application to formally appeal against the court’s decision to grant bail.

MDC senior officials Gandhi Mudzingwa and Chris Dhlamini, plus freelance journalist Shadreck Manyere, remain in police custody after the AG’s offices invoked a section of the draconian Criminal Procedures and Evidence Act, to ensure that bail would be blocked.

The legal team now awaits a decision by the same judge who granted bail, to see if the State will be allowed to appeal this in the Supreme Court. If the judge does grant the prosecution team permission to appeal, the State then has seven days to lodge the appeal in the Supreme Court. If the judge refuses the State can still approach the Supreme Court direct, to ask for leave to appeal.

Defence lawyer Charles Kwaramba said if the seven days elapsed without any movement by the State the accused persons become entitled to be released. But this is a game that ZANU PF has a lot of practice with and that is unlikely to happen.

The three, who are being accused of plotting to destabilise the Mugabe regime, have been in police custody since December. Several of their co-accused are already out on bail, but they remained in custody after the State claimed they were found with dangerous weapons. They deny this and accuse state agents of torture, after they were abducted at gunpoint.

They sustained serious injuries, which resulted in Mudzingwa and Dhlamini being hospitalised under police guard at the Avenues Clinic, while Manyere is still being held in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.

Many hoped that the inclusive government would provide the environment in which the political rivals would adopt common goals and responsibilities, but the AG’s dogged determination to keep the MDC officials and journalist in detention highlights ZANU PF’s lack of sincerity over the unity agreement.

It also puts the MDC leadership into an extremely difficult position.

The Zimbabwe Times editor and veteran journalist, Geoff Nyarota, wrote this week: “What must be the cause of Tsvangirai tormented state of mind is his realisation that since February 11 he, in fact, has become part of the state machinery that now prosecutes and persecutes a former aide who, according to him, is innocent. As the second most senior functionary in the government of national unity which now torments Mudzingwa, Tsvangirai cannot entirely escape liability for any punishment that Mudzingwa continues to endure through what many view as malicious denial of due legal process by the State.”

“If the matter remains unresolved the continued incarceration of Mudzingwa, without bail or fair treatment, could fast become Tsvangirai’s Achilles’ heel. It has potential to discredit him in the short term, while undermining his political career in the long term. Mugabe is obviously aware of the adverse implications of the Mudzingwa case on Tsvangirai”