Zimbabwe lawyers march for justice

98

Hundreds of Zimbabwean lawyers marched to demand justice for people detained and others facing fast-track trials after violent protests saw mass arrests and a brutal security crackdown.

Police say more than 1,000 people have been arrested since January 14, when a three-day stay-at-home strike called after President Emmerson Mnangagwa raised fuel prices led to street violence and looting. Those charged have been denied bail in a pattern lawyers say is a violation of their rights.

Pressure group Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human rights (ZLHR) said the arrests and detentions, most for public order offences, exceed the legal system’s capacity. Lawyers are unable to extend representation to several hundred detainees including children.

Close to 50 people have been acquitted on public violence charges and an equal number have been convicted and sentenced to up to seven years, ZLHR said, adding those found guilty did not have lawyers.

Mnangagwa last week pledged to investigate the security crackdown, during which residents and witnesses say police and soldiers conducted night-time raids on homes and forcibly removed and beat alleged protesters.

On Monday, Mnangagwa ordered the arrest of a soldier and police officer filmed assaulting a man in handcuffs.

The opposition cast doubt on the president’s promises, saying no one has yet been brought to account for the death of six people shot by the military after post-election violence last August.

Rights groups say at least 12 people were killed during this month’s unrest while police put the figure at three.

The country is mired in an economic crisis and concerns are growing that frustration could lead to more unrest after public workers issued a 48-hour ultimatum to government to meet pay demands or face a strike.

‘JUSTICE NOT POLITICS’

On Tuesday, some lawyers marching in Harare carried placards emblazoned: “Systemic beatings, detentions silence the rule of law” while another sign read “#No to judicial capture, #justice not politics; #no to militarisation of magistracy”.

They walked from the Law Society of Zimbabwe offices to the Constitutional Court, where they presented a petition while riot police looked on.

Zimbabwe’s High Court was set to make a ruling on a bail application by activist pastor Evan Mawarire, detained at a maximum security prison in Harare on subversion charges after he tweeted his support for the stay-at-home strike.

Mawarire, who first came to prominence as a critic of former leader Robert Mugabe, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The crackdown alarms rights groups who fear a return to the authoritarian regime of the Mugabe era.

Government alleges the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is behind the demonstrations, denied by leader Nelson Chamisa.

Zimbabwe was witnessing “an escalation, not only of Mugabe-type of terror but … something that will make Mugabe look like a baby in terms of terrorism,” Chamisa told reporters.