All arrested MDC members released without charge

By Violet Gonda
15 March 2006

A Mutare Magistrate threw out the state case against the MDC members who were arrested last week of plotting to assassinate Robert Mugabe. Speaking soon after his release on Wednesday Mutare North MP Giles Mutsekwa said the charges against three MDC members were withdrawn before plea by the state. Mutsekwa added that apart from the exaggeration by the print media, there was really no legal case for them to answer. Mutsekwa had initially been granted bail on Tuesday but the case was withdrawn.

The other two opposition members released without charge were Manicaland Provincial treasurer Brian James – who was freed at the weekend and Provincial Youth Chairman Knowledge Nyamhoka.

The opposition members were arrested last week following claims by the police of the discovery of an arms cache at the home of Peter Hitschmann in Mutare.

The ruling comes after the opposition activists had spent 8 gruelling days in police custody. The 4 policemen implicated in the case said they were tortured and assaulted to force them to admit their guilt. Nyamhoka and another man Thando Sibanda also disowned their statements saying they were badly beaten up and made to confess under duress. The MP confirmed that the men went through a rough time in custody. He said: “I fortunately did not undergo such difficulties but apart from me, everybody else got a thorough beating. I don’t know if it was the police , the army or the CIO but I know this interrogation went on at the Adams Barracks.”

Mutsekwa told us Sibanda was not connected to the MDC as it was reported, but is actually a ZANU-PF supporter who showed his membership card to the police. “This is why I say whoever thought this case would go for miles was daydreaming,” Mutsekwa added.

Of the four police officers, 3 were released on bail to answer charges in connection with the arms cache which was allegedly found in Hitschmann’s home. Hitschmann and the fourth police officer are still in detention pending a bail application to be heard Thursday.

All eight men were cleared of the main charge of conspiracy to possess weaponry for insurgency, banditry, sabotage and terrorism under the draconian Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

The MDC has maintained that this is how the Mugabe regime crackdown on the opposition by arresting members on trumped-up charges of plotting to assassinate Mugabe.

Nelson Chamisa said in a statement, “…the dictatorship is working flat out to derail the forthcoming MDC Congress. The regime has engaged on a sustained project to instil fear in the citizenry, set the stage for the arrest of the party leadership ahead of the Congress and to distract the nation from the real problems facing the country.”

The onslaught against the opposition has also been extended to the other camp of the MDC led by Professor Arthur Mutambara. The pro-senate faction has written to Dr Tichaona Jokonya the Minister of Information complaining about a news embargo on their leader.

The letter read, “We are reliably informed by sources at the ZBC and Zimpapers that the Permanent Secretary in your Ministry (George Charamba) has imposed news embargo on the MDC led by Prof. Mutambara. Public media are under instruction not to say anything about us except when one of us is dead or arrested.”

The group says Mutambara has received no coverage since he was elected president at their congress three weeks ago but noted that they received immense coverage during the split. “However, prior to our congress of the 25th February 2006, public media were awash with stories about us. We believe it was meant to fan and perpetuate division in the MDC.”

SW Radio Africa has been trying to get an interview with Professor Arthur Mutambara without any success.