Arrested Americans deported without access to lawyers

By Violet Gonda
23 August 2007

Two US filmmakers, arrested on Wednesday morning with the Girl Child Network director Betty Makoni, were deported on Thursday without having any legal recourse. They had been summoned the day before to report to the police which led to their subsequent arrest.

Their lawyer Dzimbabwe Chimbwa said it is still not clear why they were arrested but the Americans had been filming a documentary on Makoni’s Girl Child Network. This is an organization that works with orphans and abused children in Zimbabwe.

Makoni was released the same day at around 9pm but the two Americans remained in detention overnight. Chimbwa said he was denied access to them at all times. He said it was only after Makoni advised him that the police had searched her house and taken their travel documents that they suspected the authorities were intending to deport the foreigners.

The lawyer said: “Our enquiries at South African Airways confirmed that the police had been there to try and get them onto a plane which was leaving today at 1pm. We managed to urgently file an application before the High Court to stop the deportations and we got that order at 1 o’clock but unfortunately it is exactly at that time the South African Airways, which the two were supposed to be on, was leaving.”

A frustrated Chimbwa said the bottom-line is that his clients were forcibly removed from the country without having any access to their lawyers and without being afforded their right to be heard. The police charged them under the notorious Access to information and Protection of Privacy Act, on allegations of practicing journalism without accreditation.

Betty Makoni told the lawyer that they were subjected to long hours of interrogation, which included threats and attempts to force them to sign confessions that they had committed an offence. “And she did confirm that after a night in detention the clients were looking very weary and emotionally disturbed,” the lawyer said.

The police confiscated all the equipment and documents the filmmakers had in their possession when they were arrested. Chimbwa said the police also harassed him. He said: “I was threatened by the police officer who was manning the reception at CID Law and Order and he accosted me outside of CID to ensure that I couldn’t continue.”