In a blow-by-blow account released late Tuesday ZLHR named four senior
police officers for masterminding the arrest, detention and harassment
of Bennett (pictured), the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)'s
national treasurer.
ZLHR identified the four police officers as Detective Inspector Eliot
Muchada, Chief Superintendent Nhau, Assistant Commissioner Mabunda and
Detective Chief Superintendent Makone.
Muchada, ZLHR said, was the driver of the vehicle that drove Bennett
from Harare to Mutare in the company of three other members of the
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP).
The rights group, which has provided legal aid to human rights
defenders and opposition leaders and activists for more than 10 years
now said Muchada, who purports to act as the Officer in Charge of the
Law and Order section at Harare Central Police Station, was intimately
involved in the abduction cases involving detained MDC members Chris
Dhlamini and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's former aide Gandi
Mudzingwa and the recent persecution of two ZLHR lawyers Roselyn Hanzi
and Tawanda Zhuwarara and Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) members.
ZLHR said Muchada was accompanied by Chief Superintendent Nhau and another officer whose identity is still being confirmed.
Muchada gave regular telephone updates to, and received further
instructions from, his superior, the Officer Commanding law and Order
Harare, Assistant Commissioner Mabunda during the course of the trip to
Mutare, ZLHR said in a statement released late Tuesday and seen by
Radio VOP.
ZLHR named Detective Chief Superintendent Makone as the investigating
officer, who the group alleges travelled from Bindura to Mutare to
handle the case.
The rights lawyers also shamed Manicaland Provincial Magistrate
Billiard Musakwa who issued a Warrant of Further Detention for Bennett
without notice to Bennett's lawyers in Mutare and identified another
Manicaland Provincial Magistrate, Livingstone Chibadza, who presided
over Bennett's court proceedings in Mutare on Tuesday when he was
finally charged.
Originally, Bennett's case was due to be heard before Musakwa, but
Bennett's lawyers sought and obtained his recusal, as the Warrant of
Further Detention which he issued without the knowledge of Bennett's
lawyers will be challenged in court.
ZLHR said Bennett, who by Tuesday was in his fifth day of detention, is
detained in conditions which amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment and punishment while the constant altering of his charges is
a clear sign that the original arrest was not in compliance with the
constitutional requirement that police may only arrest a person where
there is evidence and a reasonable suspicion based on such evidence
that an offence has been committed.
This farcical behaviour on the part of the ZRP and representatives of
the Attorney General Office clearly indicate that the arrests and
detention of Roy Bennett was carried out and is being perpetuated
maliciously, and in an attempt to harass, intimidate and frustrate not
only Bennett, but also his lawyers and his fellow MDC members who are
now part of the inclusive government, ZLHR said.
Bennett was arrested last week at Charles Prince Airport in Harare when
he was about to leave the country to go and spend his birthday with his
family, who now reside in South Africa as a result of the severe and
relentless persecution of the Bennett family in Zimbabwe by state
security agents over the last 10 years. The MDC national treasurer was
due to return to Zimbabwe this week to be sworn into office and
commence his duties in the fragile coalition government