The three activists were forcibly removed from a Victoria
Falls-bound plane on July 31, 2024, and subjected to severe torture by
suspected state security agents before being handed over to Harare Central
Police.
Chere, the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Amalgamated
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), had a medical report highlighting the
urgent need for treatment to prevent permanent kidney damage.
Despite being denied bail by Harare Magistrate Ruth Moyo on
August 16, the state has yet to produce a transcribed court record, hindering
the progress of the accused’s bail appeal in the High Court.
The trio’s defence team, led by Paidamoyo Saurombe, Tinashe
Chinopfukutwa, and Kelvin Kabaya from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR), appeared before High Court Justices Lucy Mungwari and Joel Mambara.
“We filed a bail appeal after Namatai and other accused
persons’ bail application was denied by Harare Magistrate Court on the 16th of
August 2024,” Saurombe stated.
“The state had made an application to have the appeal
struck off the roll because the record of proceedings had not yet been uploaded
on the system, but we made a counter application. We requested the transcribed
record from the magistrate’s court on the 16th of August. We followed up on the
22nd of August and again yesterday, the 27th of August, at the Magistrate
Court, only to be told that only 10 percent of the record had been
transcribed.”
“We asked the Magistrate for an order that the record be
fully transcribed by the 22nd of August, and the state has no reason for
delaying the record.”
The High Court has now ordered the state to rectify the
situation by Monday, September 2nd, 2024, to allow the appeal hearing to
proceed on September 4th, 2024.
The trio has been held in pre-trial detention for nearly a
month, highlighting the state’s continued efforts to hinder their release and
prolong their detention.
The trio is not alone in this situation, over 70 Citizens
Coalition for Change (CCC) activists have been in jail since June 16, 2024,
after the police raided them at the party’s administrator private residence
while celebrating the Day of the African Child. They were denied bail by both
Harare Magistrate Court and the High Court.
They are part of scores of activists who were arrested
ahead of the 44th Ordinary SADC Summit which was held on the 17th of August
2024 in Harare. CITE
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