Magistrate withholds contempt ruling on Mukoko and others

Magistrate withholds contempt ruling on Mukoko and others

CHARGED: Jestina Mukoko is led to court by armed police last week

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Posted to the web: 29/12/2008 22:11:15
A MAGISTRATE withheld a ruling on Monday on whether human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and other activists charged with plotting to overthrow the government should be freed pending trial.

Mukoko, a former TV news anchor and head of a local rights group, and two other rights campaigners and six opposition activists were charged last week with recruiting or trying to recruit people to undergo military training to topple President Robert Mugabe's government.

The case has deepened doubts about whether power-sharing between Mugabe and the opposition is possible.

A High Court judge last week declared the detention of Mukoko and her eight co-accused unlawful and ordered their immediate release, but the government appealed.

"The state is approaching this court with dirty hands. The state did not comply with the order of Justice Yunus Omerjee," one of the lawyers, Charlel Kwaramba, told a magistrates' court.

"On that basis alone, the state should be held in contempt of the high court," he said.

Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe reserved judgment until Wednesday on whether the accused, who appeared in court, should be freed pending trial.

He said the accused -- some of whom have accused police of torture -- should be allowed to see a doctor of their choice while in a prison hospital.

Mukoko and her co-accused appeared in court in green uniforms with their hands and feet shackled. They included a woman carrying her 2-year-old child.

A further nine opposition activists were charged on Monday: seven with banditry and bombing police stations and two on lesser charges.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition MDC, has threatened to suspend negotiations with Mugabe's Zanu PF party over the case.

The High Court last week also ordered 14 other activists, mainly opposition supporters who did not appear in court, to be freed from police custody because their detention was illegal.

The activists' lawyers said police were using delaying tactics to keep them in custody, and filed a contempt of court charge on Monday against the police for refusing to free them.

South Africa, the country with the greatest influence on Zimbabwe, said on Monday that the arrests should not delay the formation of a government.

"We think the most important step is to form a unity government," presidential spokesman Thabo Masebe said. "There are many issues that need to be addressed by a unity government. This is one of them."

He also said South Africa had reversed an earlier decision to hold back $30 million in agricultural aid to Zimbabwe until a unity government was formed.

He said the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, made worse by a cholera epidemic that has killed over 1,500 people, had become too serious and farming and other supplies were badly needed.

SADC mediation has failed to push Zimbabwe's rival parties into implementing the power-sharing deal and trying to stem a crisis marked by rampant unemployment, hyperinflation and severe shortages of basic goods.

Tsvangirai led in the first round of voting in March elections, but fell short of the majority needed to become president, triggering a run-off which Mugabe won after the MDC leader pulled out, citing violent attacks on his supporters. - Reuters/AFP
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