Harare - Zimbabwean human rights activist Jestina Mukoko,
who had been missing for three weeks, appeared in court Wednesday
charged with plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe's regime,
but was released to a medical clinic for treatment amid allegations
of torture.
Mukoko, a director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was abducted
from her home three weeks ago and had been missing since. It remains
unclear where Mukoko was held over the past three weeks. Police have
denied she was in custody.
Mugabe has faced growing calls from governments around the world
to resign. Opposition leaders in the country say dozens of their
members have been abducted over the last two months.
High Court judge Yunus Omarjee ordered Mukoko and eight others to
be released to a medical clinic and be granted access to legal
representation pending a magistrate court appearance Monday.
They will be kept 'under police guard where they should be
accorded full access to their legal practitioners, relatives,' read
judge Omarjee's ruling.
Omarjee also ordered the unconditional release of 12 other
activists being held by police and called for the release of another
11 whose whereabouts are still unknown.
Mukoko and the others face charges of banditry, which carries the
death penalty. Mukoko allegedly tried to recruit people for military
training in Botswana to try to overthrow Mugabe's government,
according to state media.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have denied
training banditry, claiming Mugabe is using the charges to declare a
state of emergency. New York-based Human Rights Watch said the
charges 'seem politically motivated.'
Zimbabwe authorities should free Jestina Mukoko instead of
tossing patently ludicrous charges at her,' Georgette Gagnon, Africa
director of Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
'Her case underlines our grave concerns for the whereabouts of the
dozens of other rights activists and MDC supporters who remain
`disappeared,' Gagnon said.
The activists include a husband, wife and two-year-old boy. Both
parents had been abducted but were apparently kept in separate
places. The two-year-old toddler in her mother's hands cried after
seeing his father.
The group's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, told journalists outside the
court late Wednesday that Omarjee had released some of the detained
to a clinic as they had been allegedly tortured.
'They are allegations that they have been tortured,' she said.
'They were being blindfolded before they were taken to the police
(when the torture took place).'
Zimbabwe's opposition has in the past accused state agents of
torturing people in order to get false confessions.
Since their abductions the police denied claims that they had been
holding any of them when lawyers for the accused asked for their
clients to be brought to court.
Irene Petras, director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said
earlier Wednesday that Mukoko and others detained had been denied
access to a lawyer.
Petras said her organization was 'extremely concerned by the
contempt by the police of High Court orders by failing or refusing to
work with lawyers to ensure that the missing persons are urgently
located and brought before a court of law or released forthwith.'
The MDC claims it has more than 25 supporters who have been
abducted since October, including a 2-year-old toddler.
'These individuals have fundamental rights and freedoms which are
being violated with complete impunity,' Petras said.
Last week members of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights took to the
streets of Harare to highlight the former broadcaster's plight. They
carried banners protesting against what they say was the abduction of
a number of human rights activists and MDC supporters since October.
According to a police statement cited in state media, one of the
arrested tried to recruit a police constable to undergo military
training in Botswana with a view to forcibly deposing Mugabe's
government and replacing it with one led by MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
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