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Arrest of Attorney General despicable
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
November 08, 2007

The arrest of the government's chief lawyer Attorney General (AG) Sobusa Gula-Ndebele by the police on Tuesday on flimsy allegations that he held a meeting with an accused person should be understood in the context of the authorities' crackdown against judicial officers.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition view the incarceration of Gula-Ndebele as a form of victimization following the decision by the AG's office to prosecute the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Patrick Chinamasa.

Chinamasa was prosecuted and acquitted in a case of public violence involving the Minister of State Security, Didymus Mutasa. Chinamasa was accused of obstructing the course of justice.

In this case, the government accuses Gula-Ndebele of holding a meeting with former NMB deputy managing director James Mushore who fled the country to the UK in 2004. The police alleged the AG promised Mushore would not be prosecuted if he returned home.

In the view of the Coalition, there is nothing untoward about the government's chief public prosecutor meeting an accused person to the case of causing an arrest. This is a well-calculated move to humiliate the AG in the eyes of the public

Without the Gula-Ndebele's side of the story, it would be misleading to think that the AG was behaving outside the premise of his work.

The Coalition deplores with the State's behaviour given its history of incarcerating judicial officers. In 2002, the government arrested High Court retired Judge George Smith on false allegations and did the same to Justice Fergus Blackie.

These judges were persecuted because of their professional conduct in upholding judicial independence and the rule of law. Zimbabweans are still aware of how Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay was pushed out of the bench and how others like Justice Benjamin Paradza fled the country.

The Coalition urges the government to uphold the rule of law and stop its onslaught against independent judicial officers. If there is something untoward about the conduct of Gula-Ndebele, let there be an independent inquiry to establish the facts.

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