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African Commission to hear Zimbabwean lawyer's torture case
Zim-Online
January 15, 2004

http://www.zimonline.co.za/downloads.asp?ID=786

PRETORIA - The African Commission for Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) will in April or early May this year hear a case in which a human rights lawyer is suing the Zimbabwe government for torture and other human rights abuses.

Zimbabwean lawyer Gabriel Shumba appealed to the continental human rights watchdog after being severely tortured by state security agents in violation of the African charter on human and people's rights to which Harare is a signatory.

In a letter to Shumba, who now lives in South Africa after fleeing Zimbabwe, the commission said it has sat down the lawyer's appeal for hearing between April 27 and 11 May.

Shumba said he hoped the case will help draw attention to human rights violations in Zimbabwe and lead African and other international leaders to condemn the use of torture in the country.

The lawyer, who was subjected to electric shocks and was urinated upon by state agents, said he was also hoping the commission would ask Harare to compensate victims of torture and to punish those guilty of human rights violations.

Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa could not be reached for comment on the matter. Harare has in the past denied its security agents torture human rights activists and government opponents.

Political violence and human rights abuse have become routine in Zimbabwe since the emergence of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party five years ago as a threat to President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party's hold on power.

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