Police in Zimbabwe on Thursday released the representative for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after arresting two more party lawmakers, said the representative and a lawyer.
MDC representative Paul Themba Nyathi said that he was released without charge in the second city of Bulawayo following his arrest on Monday.
”The police were forced to release me as a result of a High Court order,” Nyathi said, adding that he had been ”illegally detained” beyond the stipulated 48-hour period.
Nyathi said he had been kept in dirty, cramped and unhygienic conditions since Monday when he was arrested for allegedly attending a meeting where last month’s anti-government strike had been discussed.
Meanwhile, two other MDC lawmakers were still in custody late on Thursday. Jealous Sansole and David Mpala, both lawmakers in the country’s western Matabeleland province, were arrested on Wednesday morning.
”I haven’t been able to locate them,” said lawyer Lucas Nkomo. He said police had been interrogating them.
The lawyer said the police had not been specific about the charges they wanted to lay against his clients.
State television reported late on Thursday that the two had been found in possession of papers ”undermining the authority of the government” and were likely to face charges under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).
The arrests of Sansole and Mpala bring to six the number of opposition deputies arrested since the opposition-led job stayaway of March 18-19.
The MDC believes the arrests of some of its top officials is a deliberate crackdown by the government against it in retaliation for the mass action. Earlier this week the party’s vice president, Gibson Sibanda, was released on bail following a week’s incarceration for allegedly inciting people to join the strike. He is facing charges of trying to topple President Robert Mugabe’s government. He could face 20 years in jail if convicted.
Hundreds of other MDC supporters were either arrested or assaulted in the aftermath of the stayaway, rights groups say. – Sapa-AFP