Charges against tortured journalist Gift Phiri dropped

By Lance Guma
21 June 2007

A magistrate’s court on Wednesday dropped charges against Gift Phiri a journalist working for London based newspaper The Zimbabwean. The state had charged that Phiri abused journalistic privilege by writing false stories. He was arrested on the 1st April this year and severely tortured by police whilst in custody. The courts however removed him from remand following the dismissal of the charges by magistrate Gloria Takundwa. Legal experts say prosecutors shot themselves in the foot by using a non-existent section of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). The magistrate reminded prosecutors that the section they were trying to use had been repealed in June 2003.

The stories which irked authorities included ‘Go now- Generals tell Mugabe as Zanu PF loses support’ and ‘ZRP denies torture charge’ in which the police were accused of torturing labour leaders Wellington Chibhebhe and others. Speaking from London publisher Wilf Mbanga said they remained quietly confident throughout the case that Phiri would be cleared of the charges. He said the paper takes its hat off to Phiri for the courage he has shown in reporting in Zimbabwe amidst the state sponsored thuggery directed at perceived opponents. The common thread with most cases similar to Phiri’s is that the state never secures a conviction and innocent people are made to suffer in custody only to be released later, Mbanga added.

Meanwhile on Wednesday the state tried to prolong the incarceration of several MDC activists held in remand prison over terrorism charges by claiming a team of police officers investigating ‘banditry training’ in South Africa had been denied entry into that country. Prosecutor Tawanda Zvekare told the High Court that the police officers had been to South Africa twice before but were blocked from entering this time around. When they arrived in Beitbridge they were informed they would be arrested immediately under that country’s terrorism law. They were also advised to request assistance through proper diplomatic channels and that these could take at least three months.

NB: Don’t miss Behind the Headlines this week as Lance Guma speaks to the publisher of The Zimbabwean newspaper Wilf Mbanga. The programme captures the papers’ struggles against a despotic regime hell-bent on shutting them down.