Defence applies for stay of prosecution

Defence applies for stay of prosecution

HARARE - The High Court will today hear an urgent application seeking to
stop any further prosecution of Zimbabwe Peace Project director, Jestina
Mukoko, and her workmate, Broderick Takawira, before a full inquiry into
their kidnapping is launched.

Judge, Elphas Chitakunye is today (Wednesday) expected to hear the case of
Mukoko, a former staffer at the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation, who was abducted from her home in Norton in the early hours of
December 3. Her kidnappers were a group of armed men, who identified
themselves as being policemen.

A few days after her disappearance, Takawira and another ZPP employee, were
snatched from their offices in Harare .

The lawyers are also seeking a relief order that Mukoko and Takawira be
released forthwith as their arrest and detention were declared unlawful.

The two have since been charged on alleged attempts to seek the overthrow of
President Robert Mugabe through recruiting persons to train as bandits and
insurgents.

"We are seeking an interdict to stop their further prosecution until the
state is compelled to disclose the identity of their kidnappers," Harare
lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told The Zimbabwe Times Tuesday.

The state admits the accused persons were kidnapped.

"There should be a full inquiry into those kidnappings and that police
arrest those kidnappers before we can deal with these people as accused
persons," she said.

The state admits that the accused persons were abducted.

Said Mtetwa, "We want to know whether it would be proper to try them for any
offence when they had initially been reported as kidnapped.

"The state must say where these people were being held all along. The state
must also inquire into whether or not these people were lawfully held.

"The state cannot pretend not to know where the accused persons were over
the past eight weeks."

Mtetwa also wants the court to compel Police Commissioner-General, Augustine
Chihuri to bring before the High Court persons who claim they received
Mukoko and others from state security agents on December 22.

Police claim to have taken custody of the accused persons, alongside 30
human rights defenders and MDC activists from state security agents.

Before that, they had continuously denied any knowledge of their
whereabouts.

Justice Anne-Marrie Gowora early this month ordered the police to release
Mukoko.

In the event that they were not holding her, the police were ordered to do
everything possible to search for her, including placing adverts in the
press soliciting for information about her whereabouts.

"We are seeking an order for the Attorney General to show cause why he
should not direct the police to investigate a criminal offence," Mtetwa
said.

The state is also resisting attempts to release Mukoko to a private hospital
for treatment claiming that an army doctor identified as Chigumira attended
to her when she was in custody.

Justice Yunus Omerjee last week ordered the release of Mukoko and eight
others for treatment at Harare 's Avenues Clinic pending what had been their
impending appearance for remand hearing at the magistrate's court last
Wednesday.

They claim thery were tortured while in detention.

The state has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court to stop their release.

"We want the High Court to tell us if it is now legal to entertain a rogue
state that comes with a defective document seeking to perpetuate an unlawful
act.

"We hear there were rogue doctors who have already examined them while they
were under torture," said Mtetwa.

The state is saying the accuse persons did not need any treatment as they
were attended to by an army doctor during their detention.

"We want the medical doctor who is said to have examined Mukoko while she
was in her torture chambers to come and tell the court as to who called him
to the torture chambers to come and minimize the trauma that they had
suffered," she said.

"We have no confidence in the doctors. They were hiding evidence of the
torture and trauma to which they were subjected."