Police arrested a High Court judge seen as having angered the government by ruling against it, accusing him of corruption, state television reported on Monday.
Judge Benjamin Paradza was accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice and corruption, and he was to appear in court on Tuesday, said the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.
The broadcast denied what it called ”sensational reports” that the judge’s arrest was linked to a ruling last month ordering police to release Mayor Elias Mudzuri, head of the opposition-controlled Harare municipal council.
It said it learned on ”good authority” that the allegations were related to unethical interference in a case involving one of his business associates. No immediate comment was available from police.
Mudzuri was arrested on January 11 on allegations he held an illegal political meeting in western Harare, the capital. Paradza granted a release order on grounds the mayor was holding a legitimate meeting with city taxpayers to hear their grievances on the council’s services.
Police ignored the order and kept the mayor in custody for two days. Zimbabwe has been wracked by political and economic turmoil since the government began a programme to seize white-owned farms in 2000. The government has moved to crack down on independent-minded judges, human rights groups and the media.
In September, Judge Feargus Blackie was arrested and detained on charges he changed a ruling in favour of a woman with whom the state alleged he had an illicit affair.
Blackie, who earlier sentenced Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa to three months in jail for contempt of court for failing to answer a court summons, denied the charges against him and said he had never met the named woman.
Police and judicial authorities ignored Blackie’s contempt ruling. In August, Paradza struck down government eviction notices affecting 54 white farm owners on grounds they were not served correctly under land nationalisation laws.
He had also ordered the government to issue a passport to a veteran human rights activist after she was stripped of her Zimbabwean citizenship. Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede appealed that ruling in the Supreme Court last month. A judgement has yet to be issued by the nation’s highest court on the nationality of activist Judith Todd (57) daughter of New Zealand-born Sir Garfield Todd, a former missionary and liberal prime minister in the British colony of Rhodesia, which later became Zimbabwe.
Several judges, including former Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, were forced out of office after the government said it could not guarantee their safety from ruling party militants who accused them of favouring white farmers in land disputes.
The government has been accused of packing the courts under Gubbay’s successor, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, who has openly backed ruling party policies. – Sapa-AP