Zimbabwe’s high court on Thursday declared ”unlawful” the seizure of a leading newspaper publisher’s passport under new measures to punish government critics, a lawyer told Agence France Presse.
”We went to the high court today and Justice Chinembiri Bhunu declared that the conduct was unlawful,” lawyer Sternford Moyo said, referring to the seizure of Mail & Guardian publisher Trevor Ncube’s travel document by immigration officials on Thursday last week.
”He also said immigration and the registrar general’s office should not interfere with Mr Ncube’s possession of his passport.”
Immigration officers seized Ncube’s passport at the airport in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, moments after he flew in from South Africa.
They said they were under instructions to withdraw the passport and showed him a letter with a list of 17 people whose passport were to be seized.
The list includes human rights lawyers Beatrice Mtetwa, Brian Kagoro and Gabriel Shumba, journalists Geoffrey Nyarota, Basildon Peta and Lloyd Mudiwa, leading opposition official Paul Themba Nyathi, trade unionist Raymond Majongwe and former opposition lawmaker Tafadzwa Musekiwa.
Parliament in August approved changes to the Constitution that allow the state to seize the passports of people perceived to be anti-government.
The seizure of Ncube’s passport marked the first time that the provision had been applied.
On Wednesday immigration authorities returned Ncube’s passport while he awaited the hearing for a legal appeal he launched on Monday to get back his passport.
”With the list still in place it would not be safe for Mr Ncube to travel abroad because there was nothing to stop another immigration officer from taking the passport from him again,” Moyo said.
”That’s why we went ahead with the court case to get a declaratory order which have got. The judge has declared the purported withdrawal, cancellation or invalidation of Mr Ncube’s passport unlawful.”
A veteran Zimbabwean journalist, Ncube is the publisher of the weekly Zimbabwe Independent and Sunday Standard as well as the Mail & Guardian, published in South Africa.
All three papers have been openly critical of Mugabe’s policies.
On Wednesday immigration also returned opposition official and former human rights activist Nyathi which they seized on Friday but took trade unionist Raymond Majongwe’s passport as he arrived at the Harare airport from a conference in Abuja.
”I am not going to bother myself going to court to recover the passport,” said Majongwe.
”Those people know what they did was unlawful so they are going to return it.” – Sapa-AFP