An unidentified foreign journalist is taken away by police.
BY CHIEF REPORTER
HARARE
A New York Times reporter and a British national were released on bail from Harare Central Police Station on Monday after spending five days in detention on charges of reporting without accreditation.
The award-winning Times journalist Barry Bearak is receiving medical treatment at Dandaro Clinic in Borrowdale for a chest infection and a back injury he sustained after falling onto a concrete floor from his prison bed, just two metres off the ground.
Bearak’s passport is being held by police and he has been ordered to remain in Zimbabwe to appear in court today, Thursday. The legal charges against him have changed throughout his detention but he is expected to face the original charges of practising without accreditation.
Defence lawyer Harrison Nkomo said he will ask that charges be dropped since reporting without accreditation is no longer considered a criminal offence in light of January reforms to Zimbabwe’s accreditation laws.
Bearak and the British national have been released on Z$300m bail.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists described charges against Bearak and his colleague as “murky”.
“We are relieved that our colleague is out on bail,” said CPJ’s Executive Director Joel Simon said. “The charges against Barry Bearak have been murky at best. These spurious charges should be dropped and Bearak should be freed immediately.”
Acting Attorney General Bharat Patel told police last week that there was no legal case against Bearak and recommended his release and the release of the British national, according to Irene Petras, the Director of the Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights.
Post published in: News