ZLHR also urged regional observer missions in the country for the June 27 presesidential run-off to investigate the case.
Matinenga, who represented Morgan Tsvangirai during the now president-in-waiting’s 2005 treason trial, was seized in a police raid on his Harare home on June 7, just two days after a magistrate had ordered him to be released from custody, saying he had been wrongly charged with inciting public violence in his Buhera West constituency.
He was driven back to Buhera and detained – while police and state law officers ignored a High Court order, obtained by his lawyers, Tino Bere and Trust Maanda, for his release.
The investigating officer, Chief Superintendent Sipo James Makone, blatantly told the lawyers that he would not comply with the order. Director of Public Prosecutions Florence Ziyambi and another law officer Tawanda Zvekare sought a review of the High Court release order in the Supreme Court and reneged on repeated undertakings to produce Matinenga. Meanwhile, he was moved and locked up in Rusape police cells.
No magistrate in Rusape was willing to preside over a hearing seeking Matinenga’s immediate release, so Chief Magistrate Herbert Mandeya arrived from Harare. He placed Matinenga on remand on a charge dismissed by another magistrate on June 4, and despite a the High Court Order on June 8 for his release.
After further machinations by state law officers, Matinenga was refused bail and ordered held until June 27. His lawyers have lodged a constitutional challenge.
“ZLHR remains deeply disturbed by this sequence of events which, to any reasonable person, can be perceived as a pattern of systematic persecution rather than a legitimate prosecution,” the group said in a statement.
“The violation of his rights as a detained person will have a chilling effect on the lawful activities of others like him … It is further shocking and disturbing to ZLHR to witness and recount the repeated and continued defiance and contempt of court orders by state representatives from law enforcement and protective institutions.”
ZLHR also urged Mbeki to investigate and to state publicly “steps which will be taken to ensure the safety of the legal profession and popularly elected political party representatives, as well as reduce the threats to peace and security in Zimbabwe and the region in the run-up to the presidential election run-off, and beyond June 27 2008.”
Post published in: News