Police Reaction Group officers allegedly assaulted the WOZA members, among them Jenni Williams, the organisation’s leader, and surrendered them to Harare Central Police Station where they were released without charge.
The following day, police arrested 195 WOZA members in Bulawayo during another protest and their lawyer, Kossam Ncube of Kossam Ncube and Partners Legal Practitioners, according to ZLHR, was denied access to his clients.
“Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights…unreservedly condemns the overzealous actions of members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police who arrested, detained and assaulted some members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise,” said ZLHR in a statement.
It added: “It is saddening that the police continue to make arrest, harassment and mistreatment of WOZA members a pastime.”
The lawyers’ organisations said the police’s action “is a clear sign that the democratic and constitutional rights of Zimbabweans are still a remote reverie and that the coalition government has not changed the situation for the better as some would want us to believe”.
ZLHR accused the policed of a shallow understanding of the law, saying ZRP continued to deliberately misinterpret local laws.
“It is shameful that the police continue to haunt the WOZA members despite several clear pronouncements by the country’s judiciary to the effect that they must stop abusing provisions of the Public Order and Security Act,” said ZLHR.
The police has in the last two months descended on several human rights defenders, arresting and detaining them in a move observers say might signal a pronounced crackdown ahead of a constitutional referendum set for mid-March and general elections later in the year.
Post published in: Politics