Activist tells court of beatings in custody

Detained Zimbabwean rights activist Jestina Mukoko testified
in court on Thursday for the first time since authorities seized her six
weeks ago, sobbing as she detailed the abuses she suffered in custody.

Mukoko was taken from her home on December 3 by a dozen armed men who
claimed to be police, according to fellow activists.

She was not seen again for three weeks, when she first appeared in
court on charges of recruiting people for military training to topple
President Robert Mugabe's government.

She testified in a magistrate court to ask a judge to allow her to
appeal to the Constitutional Court, where her lawyers will seek to have the
charges dropped.

In her emotional testimony, the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project
(ZPP) denied any knowledge of a plot against Mugabe and said she was not
involved with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

"I work for a non-profit organisation, and I am not involved in any
political activity.

"I repeatedly told the interrogators that I'm not a member of the MDC.
I'm a human rights activist, currently employed by ZPP. The objectives of
ZPP do not talk about toppling the government.

"On the day I was taken from my home, everyone was there - my
mother-in-law, my brother, other family members. I felt they must have
thought I was dead," she said, breaking into tears.

While under interrogation, she said security agents had beaten her on
the soles of her feet because she could not remember the name of a police
officer who once visited her office.

"I was assaulted under my feet because I had forgotten his name," she
said.

"The experience was frightening. I would not wish it upon anyone."

Prosecutors argued that the abuse was not committed by police, but by
state security agents who took her from her home.

They said she was only taken into police custody on December 22, and
that she could not base her appeal on abuses committed in the secret
detention facility where the agents kept her for nearly three weeks.

She is among 32 activists abducted under similar circumstances in
separate incidents since October, according to Human Rights Watch.

The MDC says 11 more of its members are missing, while two top party
officials appeared in court Wednesday on charges of trying to assassinate
the head of the air force.