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Abductees Daily Update - 09/01/15
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
January 15, 2009

Bail applications for Kisimisi Dhlamini and 4 others HCB 30 - 4 / 09, Regis Mujeye HCB 35- 6, Gandhi Mudzingwa and Zacharia Nkomo that were filed at the High Court on January 2009 are heard by Justice Karwi in Court 'O' at the Harare High Court. The accused are represented by Andrew Makoni, and Alec Muchadehama while Mr Mugabe, appeared for the state. The matter was postponed by consent in chambers to 16 January 9am before Justice Karwi in court 'O'. The state represented by Mr Mugabe did not file any responses with the state counsel not dressed for court resulting in the applications being postponed in chambers. The state agreed to file its responses by 4pm, 15 January 2009 and serve them on the defence lawyers by end of business today.

The hearing for the application for referral of certain constitutional issues to the Constitutional Court in Jestina Mukoko's case resumed 1 hour 25 minutes later instead of the scheduled 11:15 am as the state lawyers including Mrs Ziyambi the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) were late for court. They indicated that they had to attend to trials at the High Court as some of the law officers at the Attorney General's office were not coming to work and there was a shortage of staff to attend to court matters. Mrs Beatrice Mtetwa resumed her application for referral by laying out the points of law such as the violation of Jestina Mukoko's pre-trial rights of being informed of the reason of her arrest, being allowed access to her lawyers of her choice, access to relative and the fact that she was not afforded any protection of the law by the Attorney General or the police who did not investigate the matter and subsequently prosecute her abductors. She further highlighted that Mukoko's deprivation of liberty was not sanctioned by the constitution at all and she was subsequently subjected to inhuman and degrading punishment and not brought before a court of law within reasonable time.

Oral evidence was led from Jestina Mukoko. Jestina narrated her ordeal at the hands of the state agents which resulted in torture and breaches of her other fundamental rights. Under the guidance of her lawyer she further indicated that she did not believe that the Attorney General, Mr Tomana could discharge his duties impartially as he had indicated in The Herald that he was a member of the ruling party which was alleging that Jestina was recruiting people to topple the government and he had indicated that she would not be released soon. Mrs Ziyambi opposed the application for referral after having cross examined Mrs Mukoko by indicating that she did not believe that the fact that she had been detained by the state security agents before being brought into police custody warranted her application to the Constitutional Court as there was no law which precluded the AG from prosecuting someone who had been in the custody of state security agents. In any event Jestina Mukoko has other remedies such as compensation that she can use against her abductors. The ruling on the case for referral was postponed to 3 pm, 16 January 2009.

Broderick Takawira and Audrey Zimbudzana were not placed on remand as the defence and state counsel's agreed to postpone the matter sine die until the ruling with regard to Jestina application for referral was handed down.

The Urgent Application for the production of the missing abductees Lloyd Tarumbwa and others vs The Minister of State Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement in the President's Office and others HC 23/ 09 resumed at the High Court at 2:15 pm today. The state was represented by law officers Mr Mutsonziwa and Mr Nzombe while the Applicants were represented by Mr Chris Mhike. There was a surprise appearance of a person identified as Mr Benjamin. The state made shocking revelations that the police had three of the applicants under what they called Police Protective Custody, namely Lloyd Tarumbwa, Terry Musona and Fanny Tembo. The state further submitted that it had investigated and managed to discover that Bothwell Pasipamire was busy globetrotting on MDC budget. The state said Pasipamire had been seen on South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) 3 castigating the state. After submissions were made by both parties the ruling was reserved and postponed to 14:30pm, 16 January 2009. However, it was agreed that the court, the state and the applicants counsel will proceed to the place where these three were being held to confirm that they were safe and had not been tortured.

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