We are extremely relieved to know that she is free at last, but her
ordeal will not be fully over until the authorities drop the charges
against her. Her release, just a few weeks after the formation of a
national unity government with the opposition, will hopefully be the
starting point of a new government attitude of respect for free
expression.
Mukoko was freed on payment of 600 US dollars (476 euros) in bail and
her passport was returned to her. It is good to be free but being
detained was an ordeal and I must look after my health, she said,
adding that she would talk to the media later.
Her lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said: It is good she has been released,
but she is still restricted. She has to report to the police and the
charges against her are still in place although she knows she did
nothing.
A former presenter for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and then
the privately-owned Voice of The People, Mukoko now heads the Zimbabwe
Peace Project, a human rights organisation. She was kidnapped from her
home in Norton (40 km west of Harare) on 3 December by some 15 men in
plain clothes. Initially held incommunicado, she was brought before a
judge for the first time on 24 December.
Placed in solitary confinement in Chikurubi high-security prison,
Mukoko was mistreated and tortured and denied the medicine she takes.
Security agents allegedly punched her and hit her repeatedly with sharp
instruments, including on the soles of her feet, and made her kneel
naked on gravel.
Charged with hatching a terrorist plot against President Robert
Mugabe, Mukoko was alleged to have recruited volunteers to receive
military training in Botswana with a view to overthrowing the
government.
Kidnapped by government agents on 13 December, Manyere was brought
before a Harare court on 7 January on charges of banditry, sabotage and
terrorism, for which he faces a prison sentence ranging from 20 years
to life. The authorities accuse him of involvement in the bombings of
the Criminal Investigations Department headquarters in Harare and
Manyame bridge in Norton on 17 November and the bombing of Harare
central police station on 20 November.
Reporters Without Borders
Post published in: Politics