A judge revoked the bail of a prominent Zimbabwean rights activist and 17 other suspects after prosecutors formally charged them in a terrorism case that has been widely denounced as a sham.
Activist Jestina Mukoko appeared stunned as she heard the ruling from the dock and stared at Harare Magistrate Catherine Chimanda as her supporters burst into tears. Mukoko and the others have said they were tortured during an earlier stint in prison.
The suspects had been free on bail for two months. Chimanda said on Tuesday she was sending them back to prison because a formal indictment filed on Monday accused Mukoko and the others of sabotage, terrorism and banditry. Their trial was to start on July 4.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement on Tuesday that the development was “disappointing.”
“The Foreign Secretary has previously said the release of all political detainees is one of the principle conditions for full international re-engagement with Zimbabwe. This remains the case at this crucial time for Zimbabwe,” Miliband said.
Defense lawyer Charles Kwaramba said the suspects would file new bail applications.
“The law is being applied maliciously,” prominent human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, another defense attorney, told journalists.
In New York, Amnesty International said “the detention of 18 human rights and political activists on false accusations that they plotted to topple the Zimbabwe government casts a shadow over the new government and calls into question its commitment to halt persecutions of political opponents.”
The human rights organization called for the immediate and unconditional release of the activists.
The charges stem from an alleged plot to overthrow Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Neighboring governments have said they believe the allegations are baseless, and Mugabe opponents say the charges were fabricated to justify a clampdown on dissent.
Otto Saki, a member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said Chimanda had refused to allow defense lawyers to call government witnesses they said would testify members of Zimbabwe’s new coalition administration had agreed the trial should not go ahead.
“For the magistrate, overnight, to make a decision to refuse to hear further evidence effectively stifled the defense,” Saki said. “This is a disturbing violation of the fundamental right of an accused person to be heard.”
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
RSS