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High Court orders Mutambara's immediate release
By Staff
Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S High Court on Monday ordered the immediate release of opposition
leader Arthur Mutambara who was seized from the Harare International
Airport on his way to South Africa last Saturday.
Justice Tendai Uchena ruled that Mutambara's arrest was illegal and violated last week's ruling by another High Court judge who set free dozens of political activists who were arrested in the capital, including Mutambara.
The police did
not attend the hearing but the Attorney General's Office conceded that
there was no reason for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
to be detained.
It concurred with Justice Uchena and said police were not supposed to
arrest any of the 50 political leaders who had already been set free
by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu’s ruling of March 11.
Late Monday, the MDC said Mutambara had been taken to the Magistrates' Court in "pitch darkness", but police failed to find a prosecutor or a magistrate.
"They (police) failed to find a presiding officer. The lawyers Beatrice Mtetwa and Harrison Nkomo quickly served the police details with the court order, throwing them into total confusion," said Gabriel Chaibva, the party's spokesman in a statement.
"The president was held in Court 13 at the Magistrates' Court with instructions to remain there until the hearing. The police officers disappeared one by one, including the prison officers who had been called to take the president prisoner. We were left there alone with all police and prison officers having disappeared and we simply walked out of Court 13," he added.
Chaibva said one police officer confiscated Mutambara's mobile phone and passport before fleeing with the items in a pick-up truck. Zimbabwe has no money to issue new passports, and if the passport is not returned, Mutambara could be grounded for weeks.
Mutambara was arrested alongside Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of a rival faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), after police crushed a planned rally in Harare's Highfield township.
Several opposition activists were brutally assaulted in police custody. Justice Bhunu ordered the activists to be brought to court before 12PM on Tuesday last week or be released from police custody. Police failed to bring them to court and released them.
But Mutambara and
two other MDC activists, Grace Kwinjeh and Sekai Holland, were stopped
from leaving the country on Saturday. Mutambara was "handcuffed,
roughed up and arrested", party officials said.
In a hearing, which did not last an hour,
Uchena said Mutambara was free to travel because there were no restrictions
on his movements since he had already
been declared free by the same court.
Lawyers for Kwinjeh and Holland, who remain under police guard at Harare's
Avenues Clinic, were battling to get latter's passport and former's
Emergency
Travel Document (ETD) released by the police.
Party officials
say the two female activists need specialised treatment in South Africa
after suffering horrific injuries while in police custody. The hearing
has been set for Thursday before Justice Bharat Patel.
"We are trying to negotiate with the High Court so that Grace and
Sekai can
seek further medical attention outside the country," said lawyer
Alec Muchadema. "The hearing will be on Thursday but the women's
conditions are not good."
Holland and Kwinjeh were seriously injured when they were beaten in
police
cells and have been told to seek further medical attention in South
Africa.
Emotions have been running high in Harare's townships since the opposition
activists were violently seized and beaten up in police custody.
Mutambara has pledged to work closely with Tsvangirai in the coming months to "push out Mugabe".
“Sunday was
the demonstration of commitment to working together; there is no
better place to demonstrate unity than in the battlefield," Mutambara
said of the crushed rally where he was due to share a podium with his
rival for the first time.
He added: "We have our differences but we will manage them. Arthur Mutambara will not stand in an election against Morgan Tsvangirai; Morgan Tsvangirai will not stand against Arthur Mutambara.”
President Mugabe has called the opposition leaders "terrorists" and threatened that police would "bash" them if they continued with their push to drive him out of office.
As Mugabe issued his threats, 3000 militia men were on their way from Angola to help bolster his own police force's ability to clampdown on the opposition, that country's Foreign Minister Roberto Monteiro was quoted as saying.
Angola and Zimbabwe are strong allies and they jointly deployed their armies to save the late Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila from a Uganda and Rwandan backed rebel onslaught that threatened to topple him from power in 1997.
Regional analysts, Southscan quoted Monteiro as saying that Angola would be bringing in more that 3000 police militia to help Zimbabwe in "quelling violence and maintaining law and order".
Monteiro, who was in Zimbabwe at the weekend, further said Angola was "sympathetic" to Zimbabwe's police force in light of recent disturbances and attacks on Zimbabwe police.
State security minister Didymus Mutasa declined to comment when contacted referring all questions to Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi whose cell phone was persistently switched off last night.
Angola commands well equipped crack militias that were used to crush dissidents in that country during its 25 year old civil war which ended with death of rebel leader Jonas Savimbi.
The Zimbabwe police has of late been hit by wide-scale desertions by poorly paid officers and soldiers, who opt to work as security guards in South Africa, leaving Zimbabwe's security exposed, according to a recent leaked confidential police memo.
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