She gave a graphic account of the vicious torture she suffered at the hands of state security operatives from the time she was seized from her home in Norton on December 3 by 15 gunmen in her night dress.
For three weeks, she did not know where she was, was regularly blindfolded, beaten on the soles of her feet, sprayed with cold water before each night, denied medication and held in solitary confinement with constant threats that she would be killed.
She was testifying before a Harare magistrate pleading to be allowed permission to appeal to the Constitutional Court, where her defense counsel will seek to have trumped-up charges of recruiting people for military training to topple President Robert Mugabe’s government dropped.
She staunchly denied the charges in court in a moving and heart-wrenching testimony that moved many in the public gallery to tears.
"I work for a non-profit organisation, and I am not involved in any political activity," she said, wiping tears. "I repeatedly told the interrogators that I’m not a member of the MDC. I’m a human rights activist, currently employed by ZPP. The objectives of ZPP do not talk about toppling the government.
"On the day I was taken from my home, everyone was there – my mother-in-law, my brother, other family members. I felt they must have thought I was dead," she said, overwhelmed with emotions and breaking into tears.
She described in graphic detail how she was interrogated and administered a torture method called falanga, which includes assault on the soles of feet with hard objects and rubber truncheons. She said she was forced to kneel on sand for prolonged periods, a cruel and painful torture method.
Mukoko said she was viciously assaulted after she failed to recall the name of a police officer who once visited her office prior to her abduction.
"I was assaulted under my feet because I had forgotten his name," she said. "The experience was frightening. I would not wish it upon anyone," she said, intermittently breaking into sobs.
Prosecutors maintained that police were not responsible for her torture insisting her abductors were members of President Mugabe’s secret police, the notorious Central Intelligence Organisation, CIO.
The prosecutor said she was only taken into police custody on December 22, and that she could not base her appeal on abuses committed in the secret detention facility where the agents kept her for nearly three weeks.
Mukoko is among 32 activists abducted under similar circumstances in separate incidents since October. The MDC says 11 of its members are still missing, while two MDC officials appeared in court Wednesday on charges of trying to assassinate the head of the Airforce, Air Marshall Perence Shiri.
Dumiso Wakatama, the MDC Mayor for Bindura, and senior party security officer Tongai Jack, were remanded in custody to January 26 after they appeared in court Wednesday on charges of threatening to kidnap and kill police officers investigating the shooting of Shiri.
Meanwhile Nelson Mutsonziwa of the Attorney General (AG)’s Office and Police Superintendent Nzombe of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, admitted before High Court judge, Justice Alfas Chitakunye Thursday that the State was holding in detention three of the 11 missing MDC members who have been held incommunicado since October last year.
They admitted that police were holding Lloyd Tarumbwa, Terry Musona and Fanwell Tembo under what they called police protective custody in a hearing brought by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights seeking the immediate production and release of the missing MDC members.
They denied knowledge of the whereabouts of the other eight missing MDC activists, Larry Gaka and Gwenzi Kahiya abducted in Banket on October 29. Charles Muza, Ephraim Mabeka, Edmore Vangirayi of Gokwe who were abducted on December 10 are still unaccounted for together with Graham Matehwa seized on December 17 in Makoni South.
Also missing is Peter Munyanyi abducted on December 13 in Gutu. Their cases have heightened fears over a power-sharing deal signed four months ago by Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, which has never been implemented.
Post published in: Politics