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Missing activist and journalist surface in court on treason charges
MISA-Zimbabwe
January 05, 2009

http://www.misazim.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=407&Itemid=1

Jestina Mukoko the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project who had been missing since 3 December 2008 eventually appeared before the Harare Magistrates Courts on 24 December 2008 ending growing speculation on her whereabouts and safety.

Mukoko appeared together with freelance photojournalist Shadreck Manyere and other co-accused on charges of treason allegedly arising from recruiting people for banditry training to overthrow the government. Manyere reportedly went missing after he had taken his vehicle to a garage in Norton about 40km west of Harare on 13 December 2008 until his appearance in court on 24 December 2008.

Mukoko's appearance in court has, however, opened a series of legal battles to secure her release after she was denied bail. Her lawyers appealed to the High Court where Justice Omerjee ordered her release on remand but the state challenged his decision through an appeal to the Supreme Court.

On 2 January 2009 Justice Alfas Chitakunye quashed an application by her defence team led by Beatrice Mtetwa to have the police charged with contempt of court after she was kept in custody despite an earlier ruling by the High Court for her to be released. Justice Chitakunye also ruled that the identities of the state security agents who arrested Mukoko and eight other accused persons should remain secret as that would compromise state security based on the strength of a ministerial certificate produced in court by the state during the hearing.

Mukoko is now expected to appear in court on remand on 4 January 2009.

Prior to her appearance in court, High Court judge Justice Anne-Marie Gowora had on 9 December 2008 ordered the police to search for her at all such places as maybe within their jurisdiction in terms of the Police Act and Constitution of Zimbabwe and to report progress of such search to the Registrar of the High by 1000hrs on each day until her whereabouts had been determined.

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