LAWYERS FOR a high-profile human rights activist charged with plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe urged a high court judge yesterday to charge the government with contempt for ignoring an order to release the activist from prison.
Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, arrived at the Harare high court along with 17 others to press for a final decision on their detention and to face charges of recruiting people to undergo military training to “remove the present government”.
Last Wednesday Ms Mukoko made a brief court appearance at which a judge ordered police to transfer her to hospital following three weeks in police detention.
The 54-year-old had been missing since December 3rd when she was taken from her Harare home by a group of armed men. She is one of more than 40 activists and opposition supporters who have disappeared in the last two months in Zimbabwe.
“The state is approaching this court with dirty hands. The state did not comply with the order of justice Yunus Omerjee. No measures have been taken to purge the contempt,” one of the leading defence lawyers, Charles Kwaramba, told the Magistrates’ Court.
“On that basis alone, the state should be held in contempt of the high court,” he said. “We are contesting the accused being formally remanded. The actual criminals are their abductors. The accused are actually the complainants.”
Following the court appearance on Christmas Eve Irene Petras of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said those arrested had “fundamental rights and freedoms which are being violated with complete impunity” as they were being held at unknown locations and possibly being subjected to torture.
The state-run Herald newspaper reported last week that police believed one of the defendants had tried to recruit a police constable to undergo military training in Botswana, the Southern African country that has been most critical of Mr Mugabe’s regime.
Earlier this month the Zimbabwean government claimed it had evidence the Botswana government was allowing opposition supporters to train youths who would be used to overthrow Mr Mugabe. Botswana has categorically denied the accusation.
A total of 18 political figures and activists were in court to either press for their release to hospital or to fight charges they plotted to overthrow Mr Mugabe.
The court had not, prior to it going on a break, taken arguments on the charges that activists had plotted against Mr Mugabe’s regime before.