Security Agents 'Armed To The Teeth' Watching Hospitalised MDCA Trio
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has demanded that police detectives and other state security agents who have inundated a private hospital facility where three MDC Alliance (MDA) activists are admitted should leave immediately.
ZLHR lawyers, who are representing Harare West MP Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, are concerned over over their clients’ safety and threatened to take the matter to court.
In a letter dated 29 May 2020 and directed to the officer-in-charge, CID Harare, ZLHR director Roselyn Hanzi said:
We have been advised that the police officers in uniform and civilian clothes and other suspicious-looking people in civilian clothes who look and act like State security agents and who have not identified themselves to our clients or to us as the legal representatives have continued to have a domineering presence at the hospital where our clients are receiving treatment following their abduction, enforced disappearance and torture on May 13-14 2020.
… It is our considered view that the presence of your teams, including those who have been armed to the teeth, is now breeding mayhem and confusion at the hospital.
In the event that the police officers in uniform or otherwise, are not withdrawn within one hour of receiving this letter, we will approach the courts to assert the rights of our clients. We will also be claiming costs de bonis propris against yourself.
The MDC Alliance activists were on Tuesday charged with contravening lockdown regulations by engaging in an illegal demonstration on 13 May 2020.
They were granted $1 000 bail each by a Harare magistrate at their hospital beds on Thursday.
