Judge rules Mukoko must be treated in prison

Judge rules Mukoko must be treated in prison

ABUSE: Mukoko has charged that she was tortured

• Magistrate rules activists must stay in jail as Tsvangirai deadline looms

• Mukoko says she was tortured, wants charges dropped

• Magistrate withholds contempt ruling on Mukoko and others

• Mukoko, 9 others charged with plot to overthrow Mugabe

• 3 more kidnapped as police say Mukoko kidnapped

• Fears grow for missing former TV anchor

Posted to the web: 02/01/2009 15:42:15
A JUDGE ruled Friday that 32 opposition supporters and rights activists, including the former TV news anchor Jestina Mukoko, accused of plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe should remain in custody.

High Court Judge Alphias Chitakunye rejected an application for the activists' immediate release and said they should stay in custody until they appear in the magistrates' court on Monday.

He also rejected a petition from the activists’ lawyers to find the police in contempt for refusing to release them in line with another judgment by Justice Yunus Omarjee made last week. Prosecutors justified the activists' detention by saying they had appealed to the Supreme Court against Omarjee's order.

Defence attorney Beatrice Mtwetwa said Friday’s ruling proved there had been "a breakdown of law and order".

Mukoko was abducted from her home by security agents in early December. In court papers, State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa has said Mukoko and others were seized by agents from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), and not the police.

In a further blow to the activists, Justice Chitakunye a request by Mukoko to be taken to hospital for treatment for alleged torture.

"The judge (Alphius Chitakunye) made the incredible order that if she should be taken to hospital it would be for purposes of examination otherwise she would be treated in prison," Beatrice Mtetwa, her lawyer.

"The law has completely broken down in Zimbabwe," Mtetwa said after the ruling on Friday. "(Even) if we go to another court we may well get a similar ruling."

Mtetwa said private doctors examined Mukoko last week and said she should be "immediately" admitted to an adequately-equipped hospital after it was concluded that she was tortured while in the custody of security forces.
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