Jestina Mukoko Freed On Bail, Zimbabwe Judge Reverses Decision

HARARE, Zimbabwe — A human rights activist and 14 others were ordered freed on bail Wednesday after Zimbabwe's president and prime minister forced a judge to reverse her decision to send them back to the prison where they said they had been tortured.

Harare Magistrate Catherine Chimanda ignited international outrage Tuesday by revoking bail for human rights advocate Jestina Mukoko and 17 others, saying prosecutors had formally charged them in a terrorism case.

"I'm happy to be out," Mukoko told reporters later as she and the others left prison. "Justice must prevail."

The terror charges they face have been widely denounced as baseless, but Chimanda decreed the trial should begin July 4.

As criticism flooded in from rights groups and other governments, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai raised the issue Tuesday in meetings with President Robert Mugabe and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.

"They agreed that the bail conditions should be reinstated," James Maridadi, Tsvangirai's spokesman told The Associated Press. He said the justice minister was told to make sure the agreement was carried out.

At a hastily called court hearing Wednesday, Chimanda reversed her decision without saying why. She refused, however, to free three others she had ordered returned to prison Tuesday, saying their cases were more serious because they had allegedly been found with explosives.

A bail hearing before a higher court was scheduled for the remaining three Thursday.

Mukoko testified during an earlier bail hearing that she had been tortured and assaulted during detention, and the defendants had bloodied, swollen faces during court appearances late last year.

The group _ including members of Tsvangirai's former opposition party, which joined a coalition government in February _ faces charges stemming from an alleged plot to overthrow Mugabe. Neighboring governments have said they believe the allegations are baseless.

The suspects had been free on bail for two months. Chimanda said Tuesday she was jailing them again because a formal indictment filed Monday accused them of sabotage, terrorism and banditry _ resulting in an overnight stay for those subsequently ordered released.

Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change, joined Mugabe's ZANU-PF party in a unity government in February to try to address the country's economic and political crises, but the partnership has been strained.

There has been speculation the alleged terrorism case was being pursued to put pressure on Tsvangirai to make concessions, or by Mugabe hard-liners to create tension in the unity government.

The Movement for Democratic Change had said the ruling sending the suspects back to prison would undermine international confidence in Zimbabwe and could wreck the coalition.

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband was among those who criticized the order to send the suspects back to a prison where they say they were tortured, saying Tuesday that "the release of all political detainees is one of the principal conditions for full international re-engagement with Zimbabwe."

At a news conference Monday, the MDC stressed the need to resolve disputes that have hobbled the unity government. They include differences over how to share provincial governorships and other posts among the coalition partners and MDC complaints about Mugabe having unilaterally extended the contract of his central bank governor.

The MDC also is angry about Mugabe's refusal to swear in its nominee for deputy agriculture minister, Roy Bennett. Bennett was charged just as the unity government was being formed with weapons violations in a case linked to long-discredited allegations that the MDC plotted Mugabe's violent overthrow. He has been free on bail since March.

Former opposition leader Tendai Biti said if the disputes were not resolved by Monday, the matter would be taken up at a high-level party meeting scheduled for later this month. He did not, though, threaten to pull out of the coalition. MDC officials have repeatedly said they are committed to the unity government.

Comments

[wereeverywhere]

12:16 PM on 05/06/2009

Jestina Mukoko released on bail. A tiny first step towards justice, but it took pressure from the PM to do so. How many others who are not so well known are jailed or tortured because of what they say, write, or think? Zanu PF threw Mukoko in prison because she was trying to expose the human rights catastrophe. Zimbabwe has the potential to feed and care for its people, but until the crony state of ZANU PF is dismantled there is no hope.