Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe ordered the release of Concelia
Chinanzavana, Fidelis Chinanzvavana, Fidelis Chiramba, Violet Mupfuranhewe,
Colin Mutemagawu, Manuel Chinanzvavana, Pieta Kaseke, Audrice Mbudzana and
Broderick Takawira on US$600 bail each.
The activists, some of them still battling to recover from injuries
caused by weeks of torture by state agents, were also ordered to report to
their nearest police stations on Mondays and Fridays.
They were abducted between October and November last year on what the
MDC-T insists were "trumped up charges" of banditry, sabotage and terrorism.
Takawira is an employee of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) whose
director Jestina Mukoko remains in custody on the same charges.
Takawira failed to attend his father’s funeral on Thursday. Guvamombe
set March 4 as the trial date for the activists.
However, the activists had not been released by yesterday morning as
the defence team, led by Alec Muchadehama, was still battling to raise the
amount required for the bail which he said was "too much".
He described the conditions of most of the activists as grave since
they had no access to adequate treatment.
"Their conditions are very severe and they need urgent medical
attention," Muchadehama said.
During the first week of last month, the Zimbabwe Association of
Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) reported that Chiramba, the MDC-T district
chairperson for Zvimba South showed signs of cardiac failure caused by
severe hypertension.
The defence team is also alleging that most of the activists were
subjected to various forms of torture and inhuman treatment from their day
of disappearance and during the incarceration period.
Muchadehama said that they were seeking urgent medical treatment for
the activists most of whom he said might need to be hospitalized, once
released from jail.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has demanded the unconditional
release of all political detainees in the spirit of the power-sharing
agreement that ushered in the new inclusive government.
On Wednesday he said: "With respect to detainees, the Principals to
the Global Political Agreement, namely myself, President Mugabe and Deputy
Prime Minister Mutambara, last week agreed that all political detainees who
have been formally charged with a crime should be released on bail and those
that have not been charged should be released unconditionally. This has not
yet happened.
"Indeed, rather than allowing the judicial process to take its course
with regard to the granting of bail, the Attorney General’s office is
willfully obstructing the release of all detainees by abusing the appeal
process and this must stop forthwith."
But President Robert Mugabe who has been accused of acting in bad
faith insists the courts should be allowed to determine the cases on merit
and at their own pace. – thezimbabwestandard.com
Post published in: Politics