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Tourture
feared as Maguwu illegally taken from Harare Remand Prison by police
lawyers denied access
Southern
African Litigation Centre (SALC)
June 12, 2010
Torture Feared As Zimbabwean
Human Rights Defender Farai Maguwu Illegally Taken from Harare Remand
Prison by Police. Lawyers Denied Access
Prominent Zimbabwean human rights defender, Farai Maguwu, was last
night taken from Harare's Remand Prison under orders of notorious
Criminal Investigating Department Detective Henry Dowa and removed
to Harare's Matapi Police Station, sparking fears that Maguwu
is being tortured. His lawyers have thus far been denied access
to him.
Maguwu's lawyer,
Tino Bere, was today launching an urgent high court application
to secure access, explaining that he had reason to fear that Maguwu's
removal from the remand prison was for purposes of torture.
"We prevented Farai's
possible torture or harassment last week by being present at almost
all normal times at the police station. We stopped the costly surveillance
and visits because normally, once remanded, the police no longer
have control or access to the accused."
Maguwu had been placed
in Harare's Remand Prison after being denied bail in respect
of charges that he communicated false statements prejudicial to
the state.
The charges follow a
police raid of and seizure of documents from the Mutare-based Centre
for Research and Development, of which Maguwu is the director and
on Maguwu's home. Maguwu's brother and nephew have also
been detained.
The Centre
for Research and Development monitors activities in the nearby
Chiadzwa
diamond mining fields, where government security forces moved
in to secure the area following a property ownership dispute in
2006 and then forced local residents to work the fields under often
brutal conditions.
Prominent human rights
groups have alleged severe and recurring abuses, including extrajudicial
killings, on the diamond fields and that diamonds are being smuggled
out of the area with the knowledge and participation of officials.
The raid and arrest warrant
for Maguwu followed closely his meeting with Kimberley Process monitor,
Abbey Chikane, a South African businessmen undertaking assessment
of whether Zimbabwe has met the minimum standards of the Kimberley
Process, a UN-backed initiative intended to halt illegal trade in
diamonds.
Earlier this week, Chikane
reported that Zimbabwe had met the minimum standards and should
be allowed to export diamonds.
Said Nicole Fritz, director
of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre: "That Farai Maguwu
has been taken illegally to the Matapi Police Station and held in
cells which the High Court has declared unfit for human habitation;
that recurring episodes of torture take place within its cells;
that he has been denied access to his lawyers; and that this has
been done under orders of Detective Henry Dowa, so renowned for
perpetrating abuses against Zimbabwean detainees that he was the
subject of an international complaint while stationed in Kosovo
under UN authority and so had to hastily return to Zimbabwe; warrants
the most serious alarm for the safety and security of Maguwu.
Fritz adds:
"There is considerable irony in the fact that as Zimbabwe
seeks to show that conditions have changed, that it deserves admission
under the Kimberley Process, it makes clear how little has changed:
human rights defenders and government critics continue to be silenced
and persecuted. It is déjà vu again and again."
The Southern
Africa Litigation Centre, Johannesburg, Tel: +27 11 587 5000, Cell:
+ 27 82 600 1028, E-mail: nicolef@salc.org.za,
http://www.southernafricalitigationcentre.org
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in Zimbabwe fact
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