The lawsuit was actuated by continuing suppression of opposition and civil society leaders and extrajudicial killings of critics of the Mugabe government.
They cite the recent abduction and gruesome murder of an MDC director of elections in Matabeleland two weeks ago by a Zanu (PF) terror squad, saying it was emblematic of the culture of impunity for Mugabe supporters.
Also included in the body of evidence is the case of an MDC-T activist whose face was scalded on the with boiling cooking oil by Zanu (PF) thugs. The activists assert that the highest office in the land has been approving and even openly encouraging the vanquishing of the political opposition.
Zimbabwean lawyers are preparing the court challenge where they will ask courts in Europe to issue an arrest warrant and extradition order for Mugabe on the grounds of torture, abductions and extra-judicial killings.
The lawyers, who wish to remain anonymous for fear of their lives, are arguing that serving leaders should not be immune from prosecution – as stated in current international law – and cited the indictment of Milosevic, ex-leader of the former Yugoslavia, and the two "assassination" attempts by coalition forces on Saddam during the Iraq war.
The lawsuit, shown to this paper, also quotes the 1998 case of former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet, who was held in London, but eventually released, on charges from a Spanish judge of torture and murder.
The case against Mugabe, which the lawyers are backing with signed affidavits from fifty people who said they were tortured by Mugabe's regime, has no chance in Zimbabwe because of "the current climate of state-sponsored terror."
Lambasted by the West over human rights and democracy, the 87-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its 1980 independence from Britain, claims Western countries are spearheading an international "racist" witch-hunt against him.
Post published in: News