A Zimbabwean court on Wednesday ruled that a leading human rights campaigner and 15 other activists should remain in custody pending a remand hearing in a case that has deepened doubts over a power-sharing deal.
Jestina Mukoko, head of a local rights group, and the other activists have been charged with recruiting or trying to recruit people to undergo military training to topple President Robert Mugabe’s government.
”The accused cannot be released at this stage, this is a proper case for [a] remand hearing,” said Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe. The activists will appear in court next Monday for a bail hearing.
Two activists facing lesser charges were ordered to be released in line with High Court ruling last week but state prosecutors said they would appeal the decision.
Thirteen of the activists who will remain in custody are members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Two are Mukoko’s colleagues.
A High Court judge last week declared the detention of Mukoko and her eight co-accused unlawful and ordered their immediate release, but the government appealed.
The activists’ lawyers this week called on the government to be charged with contempt, as the country’s cholera death toll rose above 1 500.
”The state is approaching this court with dirty hands. The state did not comply with the order of [high court] justice Yunus Omerjee,” one of the lawyers, Charlel Kwaramba, told the magistrate’s court on Monday.
”On that basis alone, the state should be held in contempt of the high court,” he said. – Reuters, AFP