Learnmore Jongwe, the former representative and MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change who was arrested three months ago for allegedly murdering his wife, was found dead on Tuesday in the prison where he was awaiting trial, state radio reported.
It quoted commissioner of prisons Paradzayi Zimonde as saying that the popular 27-year-old politician’s body was found in his cell in Chikurubi prison on Harare’s outskirts.
No explanation for the death was given, but Zimonde said that ”a full investigation” by doctors, forensic scientists and police detectives had been launched. Jongwe, a lawyer, handed himself over to police on 21 August, two days after fleeing his Harare home where the body of his wife, Rutendo (23) was found with multiple stab wounds.
His lawyers said that Jongwe admitted to police he had killed her in an uncontrollable rage after he caught her having sex with a male colleague in the law firm where she worked as an attorney. He was due to go on trial in the Harare High Court on November 25.
Magistrates have dismissed repeated attempts to secure his release on bail. Comment from the MDC was not immediately available. Jongwe first came to prominence in the late 1990s when he led the national student union in demonstrations against the rule of President Robert Mugabe, and became the official representative for the MDC soon after its establishment in 1999.
In parliamentary elections in 2000, Jongwe won his constituency in the poor Harare township of Kuwandzana by an overwhelming margin against his opponent from Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party. He married his wife in August last year. His death has orphaned his 10-month-old daughter.
Jongwe and his fellow MPs suffered constant harassment and arrest by authorities during the last three years as the opposition rose to prominence in Zimbabwe. – Sapa