|
Back to Index
This article participates on the following special index pages:
Index of articles on enforced disappearances in Zimbabwe
Rights
activist sues govt for abuse
Sebastian Nyamhangambiri, ZimOnline
July 28, 2009
http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=4903
Top Zimbabwean human
rights defender Jestina Mukoko abducted last year by state security
agents is suing government ministers, senior police officers and
the Attorney-General for more than US$200 000 in compensation for
the abduction and ill treatment during her illegal detention.
In an application
filed at the High Court on Monday, Mukoko is claiming US$220 000
from the co-Ministers of Home Affairs - Kembo Mohadi and Giles Mutsekwa
and Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. State Security Minister
Didymus Mutasa is being sued in his personal capacity.
Attorney-General Johannes
Tomana, Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, police chief
superintendent Peter Magwenzi and an agent of the state's
spy Central Intelligence Organisation Walter Tapfumaneyi complete
the list of defendants.
The rights activist is
claiming a further US$20 000 from Tomana for allegedly failing to
meet his constitutional obligation to ensure the arrest and prosecution
of her alleged kidnappers.
The High Court is yet
to set a date to hear Mukoko's application.
Mukoko, who
is head of the Zimbabwe
Peace Project (ZPP) that majors in monitoring and documenting
politically motivated violence in the country, was abducted from
her home in Norton town, 50km west of Harare and held incommunicado
for three weeks.
She was later
brought to court charged with plotting to topple President Robert
Mugabe's government - a charge she denies.
Mukoko last month asked
the Supreme Court to order the state not to prosecute her because
her rights were grossly violated when she was abducted, tortured
and denied access to lawyers as well as her medication. Zimbabwe's
highest court is yet to rule on the matter.
A former staffer at the
state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, Mukoko was among
a group of rights defenders and activists from then opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party abducted by state security agents
last year and allegedly tortured for weeks in a bid to force them
to admit plotting to overthrow Mugabe.
The political activists
and a journalist have separately sued two Cabinet ministers and
the agents for a combined US$19.2 million in damages for the unlawful
abduction, detention and deprivation of liberty.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
