Harare | Tuesday
PETA Thornycroft, the Mail& Guardian and The Telegraph’s correspondent in Zimbabwe, who was freed on Sunday on the orders of a High Court judge after she spent five days in police detention, will not face any charges at present.
Lawyer Tapiwa Kujinga said on Tuesday from Harare that charges against Thornycroft had been quashed by a provisional court order pending another High Court hearing on aspects of the legislation under which the state wishes to charge her.
The upcoming High Court hearing will hear argument on the constitutionality of sections of the new Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act at a date yet to be set.
Thornycroft’s release on Sunday followed a submission to the court from advocate Tendai Bitit, a criminal law specialist and senior member of the opposition Member for Democratic Change, to the effect that the section of the law she was to be charged under did not have a criminal component.
There was initially confusion over the charges faced by Thornycroft after her arrest last Wednesday in the eastern town of Chimanimani where she had been investigating reports of a violent campaign against MDC supporters.
She was originally told she had violated the Public Order and Security Act. This law was rushed through parliament before last month’s presidential election and gives sweeping powers of arrest and detention to the police.
But later the authorities invoked the new media law — the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act — claiming she had not registered with the government as a journalist, as the Act requires.
However, but that Act was only gazetted two weeks ago and will take three months before it comes fully into force. – Sapa