EIGHT members of WOZA and two lawyers will be spending a second night
in custody, lawyers defending them report. This morning they were all
subjected to interviews about their life history, political
affiliation, arrest record and other personal information.
They
were then charged with allegedly contravening section 37(1)(b) of the
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act – ‘any person . in any place
or at any meeting performs any action, utters any words or distributes
or displays any writing, sign or other visible representation that is
obscene, threatening, abusive or insulting, intending thereby to
provoke a breach of the peace’.
The names of those arrested are:
Nelia Hambarume, Clara Bongwe, Auxilia Tarumbwa, Gracy Mutambachirimo,
Linda Moyo, Keure Chikomo, Edina Saidi and Kundai Mupfukudzwa. Lawyers
from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), Roselyn Hanzi and
Tawanda Zhuwarara have also been charged.
The group have been
able to access food brought in by the WOZA support team but this is
small comfort as they will spend a second night in filthy cells.
Lawyers
hope they will be taken to court tomorrow but various court staff are
on strike and the manner in which the police are dealing with the
manner indicates there is no relief forthcoming from the passing of a
new national security bill or the inauguration of a Prime Minster,
Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change, a party born
out of the pro-democracy movement.