Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Sikhala granted bail, charged with trespassing into Chiadzwa diamond fields
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
March 02, 2011

MDC 99 leader, Job Sikhala, was granted bail on Wednesday 2 March 2011 after the police who detained him since his arrest on Friday 25 February 2011 finally took him to court following an urgent chamber application filed by lawyers seeking his release from police custody.

Sikhala was transferred by the police from St Mary's Police Station in Harare on Wednesday morning to Mutare Magistrates Court where he appeared before Magistrate Fabian Feshete to answer charges of kidnapping or unlawful detention as defined in Section 93(1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification Reform) Act Chapter 9:23.

Prosecutors added another charge of contravening Section 132 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 for criminal trespass. They allege that Sikhala entered the Chiadzwa diamond fields on Saturday 19 February 2011 without authority.

Magistrate Feshete ordered the MDC 99 President and founder to deposit $500 with the Clerk of Court and to report once a week on Fridays at St Mary's Police Station. The Magistrate ordered Sikhala not to interfere with State witnesses and to continue residing at his given residential address.

Magistrate Feshete also ordered Prosecutor Motsi to present a report about the complaints raised by Sikhala's lawyers Obey Shava and Jeremiah Bamu and Peggy Mapfumo against the police such as their failure to notify him of the reasons for arrest, over-detention, assaults by the police which resulted in the MDC 99 leader dislocating the pelvis of his left leg, the denial of medical treatment and being subjected to inhuman and degrading conditions during his detention.

Sikhala was arrested while at his shop in Chitungwiza by four uniformed police officers and two unknown men in plain clothes who advised him that the police wanted to re-record statements in a fraud matter which he reported early this month.

Upon arrival at St Mary's Police Station in Chitungwiza, Sikhala was then advised that he was under arrest and was detained in connection with minerals and that statements would be recorded on Saturday 26 February 2011.

At the time of his arrest, the MDC 99 leader was informally told that his arrest was linked to a purported one million men march which the police said was scheduled to take place on 1 March 2011 in a bid to topple the government through the "Egyptian style "and that Sikhala was going around the country mobilising people to participate.

But on Saturday 26 February 2011, Sikhala was advised that he was being charged with kidnapping or unlawful detention as defined in the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, and was taken to CID Minerals Unit for the recording of a warned and cautioned statement and thereafter returned to St Mary's Police Station for his continued detention. The alleged kidnapping is said to have happened at Zengeni Shopping Center in Mutare, Manicaland Province on 19 February 2011 but was only reported six days later in Chitungwiza, Mashonaland East Province.

Sikhala's lawyers on Monday 28 February 2011 filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court which is awaiting to be set down for hearing.

The lawyers argued in their application that the MDC 99 leader was unlawfully arrested and detained and continues to be in unlawful detention.

Visit the ZLHR fact sheet

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