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Prisons officers disrupted treatment of freelance journalist
MISA-Zimbabwe
February 09, 2009

The magistrates' court on 9 February 2009 heard how prison officers had whisked detained freelance photojournalist Anderson Shadreck Manyere from the Avenues Clinic in Harare on 6 February 2009 before he had been accorded full medical treatment.

Defence lawyer Aleck Muchadehama described to Harare magistrate Gloria Takundwa how Manyere was forcibly taken away from the clinic by prisons officers without any explanation and without due regard to his medical condition.

This is despite an existing order by High Court judge Justice Tedious Karwi for the state to complete investigations on allegations by the accused that they had been tortured while in unlawful detention. The judge also ordered that Manyere be accorded medical treatment at health institutions of his own choice.

Manyere who is being charged with six Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists on alleged acts of banditry, sabotage and terrorism, failed yet again to appear in court for remand because prison officials did not have fuel for transport to bring them to court.

Muchadehama pleaded with the magistrate to ensure that the state complies with court orders and that a trial date be fixed by the next remand date on 16 February 2009. Florence Ziyambi representing the state said investigations had been completed and that a docket had since been submitted to the Attorney-General's Office.

Ziyambi said she would enquire with the prison officers as to why they had disrupted the accused's medical treatment. On the issue of the trial date, she said that would be done as soon as they perused the docket in question.

The magistrate directed the state to submit a report on the complaints raised by the accused and to inform both the court and accused on the progress of investigations as well as obtain a report from prison officials on why they disrupted Manyere's medical treatment at the Avenues clinic.

Meanwhile, Muchadehama also told the court that detained Zimbabwe Peace Project director and former television news anchor Jestina Mukoko required urgent medical attention. The matter was deferred to 11 February 2009 since Mukoko was not in court at the material time.

Mukoko who was allegedly abducted from her home in Norton on the outskirts of Harare on 3 December 2008 and went missing for almost two weeks until her appearance in court on 24 December 2008, is still to be charged.

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