Police admit arrest of Radio VOP trustees political

By Lance Guma
25 January 2006

There are increasing signs that police in the country are getting fed up with taking political instructions from the top about who to arrest and for what. Six Radio VOP trustees were arrested on Tuesday for their involvement in the station. They are being accused of operating a radio station without a broadcasting licence and hence in violation of the Broadcasting Services Act. Human rights lawyer and trustee, Arnold Tsunga, says the police admitted their arrest was ordered elsewhere.

A grouping known as the National Joint Operations Command is said to have ordered the arrests. This is a liaison committee of the military, police, Central Intelligence and Immigration departments whose mandate is to pick up so called ‘threats’ to national security. The VOP board remain adamant they do not own any signalling or broadcasting equipment and hence cannot be in violation of the relevant legislation.

Tsunga says there are indebted to their lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa for quickly liaising with the Attorney General’s office and hence avoiding the usual 48-hour detention periods that normally precede court appearances. The trustees arrested had already prepared their ‘warned and cautioned’ statements in advance and these were based on similar charges fellow Director John Masuku is facing. This made it technically impossible for the police to justify any further detention.
The court granted them bail of Z$4 million each and ordered that they report to the police law and order section every week on Friday. Tsunga described the police raids on his houses in Mutare and Harare last week as attempts to give the impression he was on the run. Workers arrested at Tsunga’s home were held hostage by police for 4 days until the board had handed themselves in. The hostage culture being employed he said was akin to methods used by terrorists elsewhere in the world.