The lawyer, Selby Hwacha, said he had served the court papers to the police earlier in the day although the application was yet to be set down for hearing at the High Court.
“We have filed an urgent application and I have just served the police with the court papers,” said Hwacha, who expressed concern that he was yet to have access to Biti or locate where the police were holding him.
Biti, a top confidante of opposition Movement for Democratic Change party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was arrested on Thursday as he landed at Harare International airport.
The police say they are charging Biti with treason and communicating statements prejudicial to the state for allegedly announcing that the MDC and Tsvangirai had won the March presidential and parliamentary elections instead of waiting for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to announce official results.
He faces the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted.
Meanwhile, the MDC said Tsvangirai was released late on Thursday after being detained by police in the city of Gweru.
Tsvangirai was detained by police in the town of Gweru where he was out campaigning ahead of a second round presidential run-off election against President Robert Mugabe later this month.
This was the second time on the same day and the fourth in slightly more than a week that police had arrested the opposition leader while on the campaign trail. Â
The MDC said he was released without charge although the police impounded campaign buses he was using on his tour to meet voters.
Tsvangirai starts as favourite to win the June 27 run-off poll that is being held because the MDC leader defeated President Robert Mugabe in a March 29 poll but fell short of the margin required to takeover the presidency.
But political violence has marked campaigning for the run-off poll, amid charges by the MDC that Mugabe has unleashed state security forces and ruling ZANU PF party militias to wage violence against the opposition party’s supporters and structures in an attempt to regain the upper hand in the second ballot.
The opposition party says that at least 66 of its members have been killed in political violence over the past two months while several thousands more had been displaced from their homes.
The government denies committing violence and instead accuses the MDC of carrying out violence in a bid to tarnish Mugabe’s name. – ZimOnline
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