By Jonathan Clayton
POLICE in Zimbabwe defied a High Court order for the release to hospital of a leading human rights activist and eight other opposition campaigners, taking them off to an undisclosed location yesterday.
“I have just received information they were taken by a red vehicle under armed police escort,” said Beatrice Mtetwa, the group’s lawyer, who often appears for opponents of the Mugabe regime. “The police haven’t complied with the order … I doubt if they will comply.”
On Wednesday, Jestina Mukoko and the eight activists were charged in court with recruiting or attempting to recruit people, including a police officer, to plot the overthrow of President Robert Mugabe. It was the first time most of the accused had been seen since they were seized three weeks ago by armed men saying they were police.
In court, judge Yunus Omarjee surprised observers by ordering the release of Ms Mukoko, her co-accused and 23 other detainees on the grounds their detention was illegal. The judge ordered that they be taken to a Harare hospital until their next court appearance, on Monday.
A lawyer for the opposition activists, Alec Muchadehama, said all nine had been taken to Chikurubi maximum-security prison on the outskirts of Harare. However, it was impossible to verify this.
Ms Mukoko, a former newsreader who heads the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was arrested at gunpoint in Harare on December 3. Her whereabouts have been unknown since then. The whereabouts of two members of her staff who were arrested the next day are also unknown.
One lawyer said the judge had taken his decision because some of the group were tortured. A two-year-old child is with her mother among those held, and was taken to court on Wednesday.
Prosecution lawyer Florence Ziyambi told the court of the alleged plot and said the accused faced charges related to “recruiting for banditry”.
The Herald newspaper reported a police statement that one of the defendants had tried to recruit a police constable to undergo military training in Botswana, one of the African countries opposed to Mugabe, as part of a plot to overthrow the regime.
The newspaper, which expresses the views of the ruling party leaders, said the training would have been used to depose Mugage and his officials and install a government led by Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
As diplomatic pressure on Mugabe, 84, has increased, his regime has made claims about the anti-government terrorist campaign and has accused Botswana of harbouring and supporting opposition-aligned rebels.
The Southern African Development Community has dismissed the allegations.
Annah Moyo, a Johannesburg-based Zimbabwean human rights lawyer, said Mugabe might use the charges against Ms Mukoko and others to declare a state of emergency and withdraw from power-sharing talks. “They’re trying to come up with confessions from these activists … that they have been trying to overthrow the Zimbabwean Government,” she said. “This is an indication of a government that is desperate to hold on to power.”
The power-sharing deal followed elections last March and June the opposition said were rigged but floundered after Mugabe declined to share any of the powerful ministries.
Irene Petras, of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said Ms Mukoko and the others arrested had “fundamental rights and freedoms which are being violated with impunity”. Members of the lawyers’ group took to the streets of Harare last week, carrying banners protesting against other alleged abductions. But the regime, battling a cholera outbreak that has left more than 1100 people dead, appears unprepared to tolerate dissent.
The US and Britain say Mugabe must go, and neighbouring South Africa, which for years has sought to protect him from international condemnation, has indicated its patience is running out. In a Christmas message, Jacob Zuma, leader of the governing African National Congress, described the situation in Zimbabwe as “utterly untenable”.