Three Zimbabwean activists who were arrested in dramatic fashion after being forced off an aeroplane last month have been denied bail, on the eve of a high-profile international summit in the country.
Robson Chere, Namatai Kwekweza and Samuel Gwenzi have been charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly protesting outside a court in June about the arrest of dozens of opposition supporters.
The magistrate ruled they were likely to abscond, could commit other offences and cause public despondency, according to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).
A lawyer representing the trio says they were held for hours without access to a legal representative and tortured soon after their arrest.
The three had been heading to the Zimbabwean resort town of Victoria Falls to attend a conference when they were hauled off the domestic flight.
Mr Chere – the leader of a teachers’ union – had bloodstained clothes and limped in pain during his first court appearance earlier this month.
Women rights advocate Ms Kwekweza says she was not even in the country when the alleged offence occurred. Her lawyer told an earlier hearing that she had had a boot shoved in her mouth during her interrogation.
A lawyer for Mr Gwenzi, a local councillor and human rights activist, had also described how his client’s interrogators had threatened to harm his family.
UN-appointed human rights experts have called for the group to be released immediately and have all charges against them dropped.
On Saturday, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa will officially take over as chairman of southern Africa’s 16-nation regional bloc, Southern African Development Community (Sadc).
The summit will be held in the capital, Harare, with an audience of other heads of state.
More than 160 people opposition politicians, activists and union leaders have been arrested by Zimbabwean authorities since mid-June, human rights groups have said.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say they have found evidence of torture and believe that the arrests set a dangerous tone for Sadc’s commitment to human rights under Mr Mnangagwa’s chairmanship.
In a joint statement the two rights groups urged Sadc leaders to condemn Zimbabwe’s human rights violations and press for the release of those arrested.
In recent days, according to ZLHR, two politicians belonging to the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) have also been arrested.
