State told to release rights activist to hospital

State told to release rights activist to hospital

A Zimbabwean magistrate on Thursday ordered prison officials
to take detained human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and opposition
activist Fidelis Chiramba to a Harare hospital for medical examination.

Magistrate Gloria Takundwa issued the directive after defence lawyer
Alec Muchadehama asked her to use her powers to ensure the two received
treatment at the Avenues private clinic, one of a few working hospitals in
Harare.

Takundwa ordered prison officials to immediately release Mukoko and
Chiramba to the hospital while she also asked the state to appoint its own
team of doctors to examine the two.

She said requested defence lawyers and the state to submit reports to
her in order to enable her to make a ruling on whether the two activists
should be kept at the hospital or returned to jail.

The two's health is said to have seriously deteriorated while in jail
where prison officials have kept them despite numerous orders to release
them so they could receive proper treatment.

Mukoko, a former state broadcaster and now director of human rights
organisation Zimbabwe Peace Project, and Chiramba are among a group of
rights activists and opposition MDC members accused of attempting to recruit
people for military training in neighbouring Botswana to overthrow Mugabe.

The accused were all kidnapped from different places last year and
held incommunicado for several weeks during which their lawyers say they
were severely tortured by state agents in a bid to force them to admit to
the charges of banditry.