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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Index of articles on enforced disappearances in Zimbabwe
Jestina
being poisoned in custody
AFP
January 04, 2009
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090104/wl_africa_afp/zimbabwepoliticsjustice
Zimbabwean rights campaigner
Jestina Mukoko, who is to appear in court Monday on charges of plotting
to overthrow President Robert Mugabe, is being poisoned and tortured
in custody, the Sunday Independent reported.
According to the paper,
Ms Mukoko, who is in solitary confinement at the notorious Chikurubi
Maximum Security prison, is being force-fed drugs by prison personnel.
It said her lawyer Beatrice
Mtetwa has called for a toxicology report to support the allegations.
"Mukoko is psychologically
traumatised, it is not certain that she has told the full story
because, every time she speaks to a doctor or a lawyer, a state
official is present," said Ms Mtetwa.
Ms Mukoko was seized
from her home on December 3 by armed men who identified themselves
as police.
Last week she made a
first court appearance after being detained at an unknown location
for weeks.
A high court on Friday
refused an application by her lawyers that she be taken to hospital
for treatment after alleged torture.
She is accused together
with 28 members of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party of recruiting or goading other
people to undergo military training in neighbouring Botswana aimed
at toppling Mugabe's Government.
Ms Mukoko's detention
raised particular alarm among international rights groups and western
nations which have accused Mr Mugabe's Government of intimidation
and harassment.
The rampant human rights
abuse cases in Zimbabwe highlight the country's deepening political
crisis more than three months after Mr Mugabe signed a power-sharing
deal with Mr Tsvangirai.
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