I order the immediate release of Fannie Tembo, Lloyd Tarumbwa and
Terry Musona from police custody or the custody of any other state
agent, said Justice Ben Hlatshwayo delivering judgment.
This order stands enforceable notwithstanding the noting or filing of an appeal.
The three MDC activists have been missing since October last year after
they and other party activists were abducted by state agents from their
respective homes and accused of plotting to overthrow President Robert
Mugabe.?
They have been held incommunicado until this week when the High Court
allowed relatives to visit them as police insisted they were being kept
in custody for their own safety after they betrayed their colleagues by
agreeing to cooperate with the state.
Human rights lawyers Chris Mhike and Innocent Chagonda took the state
to the High Court to release the trio arguing that the three were bread
winners for their families and the state had not provided their
families with assistance while they were in custody.?
The state represented by Nelson Mutsonziwa had opposed the application
saying the three would be state witnesses when Mukoko's trial starts.
Top Zimbabwe human rights campaigner Mukoko was released on bail this
week in what analysts said was an encouraging sign that Tsvangirai's
calls for political prisoners to be freed were finally being heeded.
Mukoko, a former state broadcaster and now director of human rights
organisation Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), and the MDC activists are
charged with attempting to recruit people for military training in
neighbouring Botswana to overthrow Mugabe and his ZANU PF party.
ZimOnline
Post published in: Politics