from MARCUS MUSHONGA in Harare, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Bureau
HARARE, (CAJ News) – A ZIMBABWEAN court has ordered police to hand back some electronic gadgets confiscated from pro-democracy campaigners during a crackdown in July.
The three campaigners lost their gadgets and were tortured after they were seized from a plane in the largest airport in the capital Harare.
Some mobile phones and laptops were confiscated from pro-democracy campaigners, namely Robson Chere, Samuel Gwenzi and Namatai Kwekweza, when they were arrested and detained by Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers.
They had been forcibly removed from a plane they had boarded at Robert Mugabe International Airport, on their way to attend a conference in Victoria Falls.
They were prosecuted on charges of “disorderly conduct in a public place.”
This followed their protests against the detention of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) political party leader, Jameson Timba, and some of the opposition party members.
A Harare magistrate has ordered ZRP to release and return Chere’s, Gwenzi’s and Kwekweza’s mobile phone handsets and laptops.
The trio is to return to court on December 9, where a ruling on their application for exception to the charges of “disorderly conduct” will be handed down.
The government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa is accused of a crackdown on critics since he seized power after a coup in 2017, and won two subsequent terms.
– CAJ News