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Zimbabwe rights activist jailed despite court order for release

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Leading Zimbabwe human rights activist Jestina Mukoko has been taken to the high-security Chikurubi prison outside of Harare in violation of a court order that she be taken to a hospital, according to human rights lawyers Friday. Mukoko, who is charged with attempting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe, went missing for three weeks earlier this month and was feared dead. She nonetheless appeared in court on Wednesday to face the charges against her while claiming she had been tortured during her three-week detention. The judge ruled her detention was illegal and that she be taken to a private hospital and given police protection, but she never appeared at the hospital. Eight other rights activists whose release had also been ordered were taken to the prison. They could have faced the death penalty if they had been tried and been found guilty for the crimes alleged. Mukoko, head of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), has played a key role in monitoring and publicizing the wave of violence that has hit the country before and after recent presidential elections and the run-off elections that followed. Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, presidential candidate of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), have been disputing results of March elections for months. They signed a power-sharing agreement in September, under which Mugabe would remain president, Tsvangirai would become prime minister, and each would have two deputies. The agreement, however, has been stymied over disagreements regarding division of top Cabinet posts, and violence and allegations of human rights violations continue to mar the election results, with the MDC estimating that nearly 100 of its members have been killed since March, and more than 100 imprisoned.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 26, 2008 (boomark / email).