/ 27 January 2001

UN SLAMS BULLYING OF ZIM JUDGES

A UN expert has criticised the Zimbabwe government for the alleged intimidation of judges in the ongoing debate over land reforms in the southern African country. “The deterioration in the rule of law and the undermining of the independence of the judiciary is a matter of grave concern to the international community,” Dato’Param Cumaraswamy, a special envoy on the independence of judges and lawyers, said in a statement. The judges have come under mounting pressure since November, when the Supreme Court ruled that the government’s land reform program was unconstitutional. – AFP

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