Zimbabwe police have picked up a senior opposition member for questioning over last week’s bombing of the offices of a private radio station, his lawyer said on Monday.
Lawyer Simbarashe Muzenda said that Tapiwa Mashakada, who is a parliamentarian and the shadow economics minister of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was picked up by police late on Sunday.
”Apparently they (police) received an anonymous letter in which the bombing of the Voice of the People (VOP) was said to be the work of Mashakada,” Muzenda said.
Last week a bomb blast destroyed the station’s offices and equipment in Harare. The MDC has accused the government of being behind the attack.
The government, which describes VOP as a ”pirate” station, has blamed ”terrorists” wanting to discredit Zimbabwe and get its internal affairs on to the agenda at the current UN World Summit in South Africa.
Contacted by AFP for comment, police representative Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed Mashakada had been picked up, but could not confirm this was in connection with the VOP bombing.
He said preliminary investigations were underway and more details would be made available later.
Muzenda added that his client’s house had also been searched by police and that Mashakada was being held in police cells.
VOP was one of only two broadcasters that had managed to circumvent Zimbabwe’s tough media laws by using transmitters outside the country to carry its broadcasts to Zimbabwe on shortwave.
Based in the Netherlands, VOP is seen by the government as being sympathetic to the MDC. – Sapa-AFP