Human rights lawyers summonsed in Zimbabwe

In a development that is likely to toughen tensions between partners in the coalition government the two human rights lawyers namely Tawanda Zhuwarara and Rose Hanzi from the rights group, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) will on Tuesday appear in court when their trial for allegedly contravening Section 37(1)(b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act by participating in a gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of the peace or bigotry commences. Hanzi and Zhuwarara, who last appeared in court on 28 April 2009 when their trial failed to commence after some police officers considered as the States witnesses failed to turn up in court were served with summons ordering them to attend court by Detective Sergeant Musademba of the Law and Order Section at the Harare Central Police Station.
The two project lawyers at ZLHR were arrested by unidentified members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) on 10 February 2009 as they were returning to the office (situated next to the Parliament building) after lunch. Regrettably, they were caught in the crossfire of further indiscriminate arrests carried out by the ZRP arising from a demonstration outside Parliament building in Harare by WOZA. With the complicity of Parliamentary staff, they were unlawfully detained in the Parliament Guard Room, until police details removed them to Harare Central police station. At the time of their arrest lawyers who attempted to get access to Hanzi and Zhuwarara at Harare Central were denied access by the police. The summoning to court of the two ZLHR lawyers comes barely a week after the police arrested prominent human rights lawyer Alec Muchadehama. Muchadehama, a crusading human rights lawyer was ambushed and arrested at the Magistrates Court on last Thursday by members of the Law and Order section of Harare Central police station. He was later on Friday, a day after sleeping in police cells at Braeside Police Station. The human rights lawyers arrest followed that of two veteran journalists Vincent Kahiya and Constantine Chimakure of The Zimbabwe Independent, a weekly newspaper. – From Religious Intelligence (UK)