Harare West MP Joanna Mamombe (MDC Alliance) has sued the
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) for US$120 000 after suffering a miscarriage,
which she alleges was because of police actions.
In a letter to the ZRP, Mamombe said she was summoned to
the Law and Order section on May 23 this year while she was attending the MDC
congress in Gweru.
She reported at Harare Central Police station on May 28,
accompanied by her lawyer Obey Shava, where she was advised that she was being
charged with violating the Electoral Act.
The legislator was immediately advised that she would be
detained in police cells pending her initial court appearance the next day at
the Harare Magistrates Court.
Despite the police officers allegedly confiding to Shava
that her client was not a flight risk because she was on bail on other serious
charges, they detained her after indicating that the matter had political
interests such that it would be improper for her to be released.
In his letter of intention to sue, Shava argued that his
client’s detention was unlawful.
He said Mamombe was detained by the police as if it was a
rule cast in stone that every person arrested must be detained.
In the letter addressed to Police Commissioner-General
Godwin Matanga and copied to Home Affairs deputy secretary (finance and
administration) and civil division of the Attorney-General’s Office, Shava
submitted that the police officers’ conduct was wrongful, irresponsible,
barbaric and deplorable and could not go unpunished.
Mamombe submitted that at the time of arrest, she was two
months pregnant and a day after release from the police custody, she had a
miscarriage, which she claimed was caused by the traumatic experience and
stress she underwent while in police custody.
“We contend that the conduct of the police amounts to gross
violation of our client’s right to personal liberty and dignity. It is further
a gross violation of the unborn baby’s right to life as enshrined in the
Zimbabwe Constitution and various international treaties on human rights,”
Shava said.
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