Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, was being held at Harare Central police station while the police carry out investigations.
Nkomo allegedly uttered the offending statement while appearing for Frank Chikowere, a freelance journalist who is facing charges of committing public violence. Chokowere and 21 opposition activists charged with him were last week freed on bail.
Bvudzijena said: “He made an insulting statement in court towards the state and we are investigating him on that issue.”
This is not the first time that police have arrested lawyers for offences allegedly committed while performing their duties in court.
Prominent Harare lawyers Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni were last May arrested after challenging in court a certificate issued by Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi barring the courts from granting bail to an opposition legislator and 12 other activists who were being accused of petrol-bombing government properties.
The police claimed that Muchadehama and Makoni had, during the bail application of their clients, uttered words which amounted to obstructing the course of justice. The lawyers were eventually cleared by the courts, as were their clients who were not found guilty of the terrorism charges.
Meanwhile the Pan African Parliament (PAP) has said a second presidential run-off election in Zimbabwe would not solve the country’s political crisis and could in fact worsen the situation.
Zimbabwe holds a presidential run-off poll at a yet unknown date after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a March 29 election but failed to garner more than 50 percent of the vote required to takeover the presidency.
Leader of the PAP’s observer mission Marwick Khumalo said a political solution was now required. “We are dealing with a wounded tiger here . . ,” he said.
Khumalo said the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) had told him that it was unlikely to call the run-off election in the prescribed 21 days because of logistical constraints.
The opposition MDC party, Western governments and human rights groups have accused Mugabe of unleashing state security forces and ruling ZANU PF party militias against voters in a bid to scare them to back him in the second round ballot.
The MDC says at least 24 of its supporters have been murdered while another 5 000 have been displaced in the violence, which the opposition party has described as a war by Mugabe against Zimbabweans.
The government however denies the allegation and instead says it is the MDC that has carried out political violence in a bid to tarnish Mugabe’s name.
In its report on the Zimbabwe polls, the PAP said the ZEC had long lost control of the election process in that country as shown by the inordinate delay to issue result of the March 29 presidential poll that was finally released more than a month after voting.
The PAP report read in part: “Judging by the mystery surrounding the outcome of the presidential results and the unorthodox recounting of the ballots even before all the results of the harmonised elections are known, it is evident that the ZEC long lost control of the electoral process and its constitutional obligation has been gravely compromised.”
The ZEC attributed the long delay to the need to closely verify all figures and said a recount of votes in 23 constituencies delayed the release of the final result. – ZimOnline.
Post published in: News