Iden Wetherell, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, is expected to appear in court on Monday following his arrest on Saturday evening for apparently “insulting” President Robert Mugabe.
Wetherell and two of his reporters were arrested over a story alleging that Mugabe commandeered a national airline plane to fly him around Asia for his annual holiday, police and a lawyer said on Sunday.
The Mail & Guardian Online published a “By Invitation” column by Wetherell last week in which he laments the repressive conditions under which Zimbabwe’s independent press operates.
Their lawyer Linda Cook said Wetherell (55) was arrested at his Harare home and taken to the main Harare police station. She said reporters Dumisani Muleya and Vincent Kahiya were arrested later and police were looking for a third Independent reporter, Itai Dzamera.
Trevor Ncube, CEO of the Mail & Guardian’s holding company, M&G Media, and owner of the Independent, on Saturday night told the Mail & Guardian Online the arrest was a “very clear indication of the kind of repressive regime that Zimbabweans are having to deal with. As the regime gets desperate you’re going to see more and more of this.”
Ncube said his lawyers had visited the men in the Harare Central Prison on Saturday evening and it seemed Wetherell and the journalists would only be released on Monday.
Ncube said his staff would continue to carry out their responsibilities as journalists in Zimbabwe and that the arrest had fortified their resolve.
“We need to do the right thing … it exposes the lie of Robert Mugabe’s regime,” said Ncube.
Headed Mugabe grabs plane for Far East holiday, the report said many passengers booked on the Boeing 767’s scheduled flights to London were stranded in Harare while alternative flight arrangements were made.
Mugabe has taken several vacations in Southeast Asia with his new wife Grace and their children since he and other ruling party leaders were barred from visiting Europe and the United States under visa restrictions imposed after disputed presidential elections in 2002.
Independent election observers said the polls, narrowly won by Mugabe, were swayed by political violence, corruption and vote rigging.
Mugabe was in Indonesia on Wednesday and paid a courtesy call on President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Zimbabwe Information Minister Jonathan Moyo described the Independent’s report as “blasphemous,” the state Herald reported on Saturday.
Moyo, who is also acting transport minister, denied Mugabe personally phoned Air Zimbabwe, as implied in the report, but did not deny the airplane was diverted from its regular schedules for more than five days.
Moyo said “this was not the first time the paper has written lies that are blasphemous and disrespectful of the president.”
Last month, the paper reported Mugabe took an airliner for nine days for a UN meeting in Geneva and a visit to Egypt, forcing the national airline to charter another jet for more than US$1-million. Mugabe does not have his own presidential jet and has often thrown the national carrier’s schedules into disarray by commandeering its planes.
Moyo said Wetherell and his two reporters faced up to two years’ imprisonment for allegedly defaming Mugabe.
Meanwhile, police in Harare on Saturday continued to defy a High Court order issued on Friday to allow the only independent daily newspaper, banned in September, to resume publication.
Police blocked entry to the Daily News offices and printing plant for a second day.
The government has ignored three similar orders since police shut down the paper on September 12.
Since its launch in 1999, the Daily News has been a platform for criticism of Mugabe’s 23-year rule.
The state controls the country’s two other dailies, and the only television and radio stations.
Under sweeping media and security laws passed in 2002, at least 18 independent journalists have been arrested and held in police cells, usually for about 48 hours. No-one has yet been convicted.
Opposition and labor leaders have frequently been arrested for criticising the government.
Few foreign journalists are allowed to enter Zimbabwe, and four have been expelled since 2002. – Sapa-AP
Battling it out in Zim, by Iden Wetherell
Court unbans Zim paper, again
Zimbabwe ruins African unity
Famine in Zimbabwe