It was a clear case of command justice when MDC Organizing
Secretary Hon. Amos Chibaya was today remanded in custody to Monday 26 August
for a ruling on his bail application.
His lawyer, Obey Shava exposed the State case for its
clumsiness, arguing that Chibaya could not be denied bail on a lesser charge of
violating provisions under POSA when he was already on bail on a more serious
charge of subversion. The State also denied a bail offer from Hon. Chibaya to
commit a monetary payment with stringent reporting conditions as well as a
pledge not to interfere with State witnesses, who in any case are police
officers. Chibaya’s passport is already with the court as part of his reporting
conditions for a subversion charge he is already facing and for which he is on
bail.
Chibaya’s remand in custody is testimony that the regime is
undertaking a brutal programme of persecution by prosecution after they denied
the MDC Organiser bail even though he had handed himself over to the police in
the company of his lawyer.
The MDC believes that the country is choking under the
thick blanket of an unofficial state of emergency. There is a systematic
targeting of innocent Zimbabweans and the people’s leaders by brutally blocking
them from exercising their constitutional right to peaceful demonstrations.
It also telling that Hon. Chibaya was denied bail on the
very same day that the State waged a clampdown on the leaders of a rural
teachers union in which their lawyer, Douglas Coltart, was brutally assaulted.
Coltart is the son of the MDC Treasurer-General, Hon. David Coltart.
Citizens are under siege. The people’s leaders are under
siege but all Zimbabweans remain in high spirits, well aware that brutality has
short legs and that no amount of State-sanctioned thuggery will triumph over
the people.
In fact, it is the regime that is under siege from its
cluelessness and from the legitimate grievances of the citizens that it is
failing to address.
Zimbabweans are peacefully clamouring for a truly people’s
government that can begin to address the challenges facing the nation.
Luke Tamborinyoka
Deputy National Spokesperson
Movement for Democratic Change.
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