According to the UK Daily Mail newspaper the woman whose identity cannot be named for legal reasons in the UK, and referred to only as SK, confessed to having beaten up to 10 people during two land invasions.
Justice Ouseley, sitting at the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber, accused the woman of crimes against humanity and said the state sponsored violence was akin to genocide. The judge said the farm invasions were part of widespread, systematic attacks against white farmers and their black workers, carried out with the full knowledge of the regime as a deliberate act of policy.
The mother of two came to the UK in 2002 but only filed an asylum claim 6 years later arguing that her past deeds were done under duress and pressure, to prove her loyalty to Mugabes regime. On one occasion she admitted beating up a woman so badly she thought her victim would die. The judge was of the view the beatings were undertaken for political reasons, the suppression of perceived opposition and for the financial advancement of the regime members and supporters.
Although Justice Ouseley admitted the woman was a lesser participant in the violence he said she took a voluntary, even if reluctant part in the invasions. He said even though she had a peripheral role she still made a substantial contribution to genocide. The judge likened her role in the invasions to that of a concentration camp guard in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust saying we are satisfied that the two farm invasions were crimes against humanity.
Post published in: Politics