The last three Zimbabwean political prisoners were released from detention late on Friday. Shadreck Manyere, a freelance photojournalist, was held in the notorious Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison for nearly four months, accused of terrorism.
Ghandi Mudzingwa, formerly Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s personal
assistant, was released from hospital where he had been admitted after
numerous court actions. Chris Dlamini, director of security in
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was also released. He
had to be referred to hospital to have his ear reattached after long
periods of assault and torture in detention. Mudzingwa, who has also
told various courts he was tortured in custody, became critically ill
in Chikurubi. Prison authorities had to transfer him to a private
clinic, under heavy guard, after human rights lawyers warned he could
die in custody.
The three were all abducted and disappeared for several weeks before
they and other kidnapped MDC members and civil rights activists turned
up in various police stations just before Christmas. Seven MDC members
who were abducted in the same swoops by intelligence operatives are
still missing. The abductions were widely interpreted by analysts as
measures designed by President Robert Mugabe’s security chiefs to
pressure Tsvangirai to pull out of the weeks-old political agreement
which later led to the shaky inclusive government. All but a handful of
the more than 30 people abducted are facing various security charges
which the MDC says are "trumped up". Tens of thousands of MDC
supporters, officials and MPs have been arrested. So far not one has
been convicted. A handful of Zanu-PF members allegedly involved in
murdering, mutilating and beating thousands of MDC members have been
prosecuted and most were swiftly released after conviction.
From The Cape Argus (SA)