Mohadi petitions court over MDC bomb suspects

Mohadi petitions court over MDC bomb suspects

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S Home Affairs Minister told a court not to grant bail to 13 detained opposition activists because they were a threat to peace and security.

Kembo Mohadi issued a ministerial certificate that was presented in court on Monday just as a magistrate was about to deliver his ruling on an application to have the men released.

“There is real likelihood that the accused persons would undermine peace or security if set free, therefore, refusal to grant bail and detention of the accused persons in custody will be in the interests of justice,” Mohadi said in the certificate.

The prosecution team and defence lawyers squared up over the admissibility of the certificate. The defence team insisted that a certificate could only be issued in a bail application, and their application was not for bail but their release.

After postponing a ruling on the matter to Wednesday, magistrate Lazarus Murendo rejected the accused men's application.

Those detained are all members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), arrested in March and April during a government crackdown on the opposition.

They include the MP for Harare’s Glen View suburb, Paul Madzore, as well as Ian Makone, a member of the MDC national executive, and former journalist Luke Tamborinyoka.

President Robert Mugabe’s government accuses the group of staging a series of petrol bomb attacks on targets including police stations and stores owned by ruling party officials. The men deny the charges and say they have been framed.

In his certificate, Minister Mohadi claimed that the detained men had undergone military training in South Africa and that police were still investigating.

The accused had also been directly involved in the petrol bombings that rocked the country between March and April 2007, he said.

Last week Murendo ordered the police to investigate the severe assault of one of the detained MDC members, Philip Mabika, while in custody.

Several other members of the group have also been assaulted in custody, lawyers say. –Sapa-dpa
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