'Bandit' toddler held with parents over Mugabe plot freed

'Bandit' toddler held with parents over Mugabe plot freed

• Tsvangirai's adviser, 6 others charged in bomb plot

• Mukoko, 8 others to remain in jail until Jan. 4

• Judge rules Mukoko must see doctor

• Judge rules Mukoko must be treated in prison

• 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: 14/01/2009 14:50:15
A 2-YEAR-OLD boy has been released from jail after being held for weeks with his parents in what the Zimbabwean opposition calls a crackdown on dissent, a lawyer said Wednesday.

Nigel Mutemagau was released to other relatives on Tuesday, after a judge said there was no reason to hold him, defence lawyer Charles Kwaramba said.

The boy's parents, opposition party members Collen Mutemagau and Violet Mupfuranhehwe, are accused in a plot to commit acts of banditry and overthrow President Robert Mugabe. They were in court for a hearing Wednesday, appearing without Nigel in their arms for the first time since they were detained.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said Wednesday the charges against the boy's parents and six other defendants are "trumped up." The party said those detained — even young Nigel — were abused by security agents.

Kwaramba said Nigel was hit as he and his parents were taken from their home, and that would be included in a dossier of evidence that detainees were beaten and tortured.

Police and prosecutors have denied such charges. Judges have yet to rule on defence lawyers' requests that all the detainees be released because they were tortured and illegally detained.

Nigel and his parents were among a detained group that included prominent rights activist Jestina Mukoko, whose whereabouts had been unknown for weeks. Police had denied they were held.

The activists were finally brought to court December 24, the same day state media reported they were accused in a plot already widely dismissed as a fabrication. They have yet to be formally charged.

The defendants are accused of attempting to recruit anti-government fighters to train in neighboring Botswana.

Zimbabwean officials have repeatedly made such accusations, which Botswana and the opposition party have denied. South African President Kgalema Motlanthe dismissed the Zimbabwean allegations, saying the Southern African Development Community, the main regional bloc, opened an investigation when Mugabe's government first raised them, but "we never believed" them.

Activists fear the Mugabe government could use the charges as an excuse to declare a state of emergency and withdraw from power-sharing talks.

A power-sharing deal signed in September calls for Mugabe to remain president and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to take the new post of prime minister. The agreement has stalled over a dispute about who would control "key" Cabinet posts — and over charges Mugabe has stepped up harassment of dissidents. - AP
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