Mukoko Ruling: Zimbabwe’s justice on trial
Posted by ZDN on October 8, 2009
The full bench of Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court, sitting as a Constitutional Court, ordered the Attorney General to cease prosecuting human rights’ activist Jestina Mukoko, 54, in what Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights describe as a litmus test for the country’s justice delivery system.
The director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project and 16 others were charged with plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe’s government last year.
“The state, through its agents, violated the applicant’s constitutional rights to the extent of entitling the applicant (Mukoko) a permanent stay of criminal prosecution,” said Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, flanked by Justices Paddington Garwe and Luke Malaba, as he delivered the ruling in a packed Supreme Court chamber on September 28.
Lawyers are still waiting for full details of the reasons for the ruling. Mukoko’s lawyer, Harrison Nkomo said it was a good ruling for his client but that it is too early to say if the judiciary in Zimbabwe was not longer compromised.
“If a court makes a sensible ruling, it must be commended for that. I should congratulate the Supreme Court for capturing the law quite clearly. She would not have been brought to court had the Attorney General’s office applied its mind. The manner in which the state agents apprehended her are testimony that she had not done anything wrong.”
Mukoko challenged the court that her constitutional rights had been violated when she was seized from her Norton home at dawn in her nightdress by five unidentified armed men and a woman, tortured repeatedly and kept in solitary confinement at various secret locations before being handed over to the police three weeks later. Her rights were further grossly violated by being denied access to medication for her severe allergies and to a lawyer.
During the Constitutional Court hearing State prosecutor Ms Fatima Maxwell conceded that State security agents had abducted and illegally detained Mukoko. In an earlier hearing, Didymus Mutasa, Minister of State Security, said she had been picked up by the Central Intelligence Organisation, which falls under his portfolio but does not have the right to arrest people.
Before the former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation news reader was handed over to the police she was blindfolded and beaten repeatedly on the feet with a hosepipe and a coiled object by initially six and then 10 people, working in pairs, all of whom were visibly drunk. She was interrogated while kneeling on sharp gravel and on December 13 was forced to sign a statement saying she had recruited an ex-policeman to help recruit MDC insurgents to train in Botswana, a charge discredited by the Southern African Development Community. A certain Fidelis Mudimu had her read this statement to camera.
As a result of her severe injuries she was in pain for a long time afterwards. When doctors finally saw her, they called for X-rays, which the state security agents and police would not allow.
She was repeatedly threatened with death and underwent what the court doctors described as “harrowing human rights’ abuses.” As her condition deteriorated she was seen by Dr Chigumira who was shocked by her condition and subsequently she was given medicine for her allergies.
On December 22 Mukoko’s captors handed her over to Chief Superintendent Magwenzi who kept her blindfolded while her captors left. She was held in solitary confinement, shackled and forced to wear handcuffs and leg irons while in police custody. Police took her to search her Norton home and went away with several things: they did not take an inventory.
On December 8 the Zimbabwe Republic Police had opened a criminal case of kidnapping, perhaps in reply to the growing international demand for her release that included the voices of Gordon Brown and Condoleezza Rice. It was never investigated or prosecuted.
Mukoko had access to a court and a lawyer for the first time on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day she was transferred from Chikurubi high security prison to the private Avenues Clinic under armed guard but returned to Chikurubi after her High Court appearance on December 28 where a newspaper report says she was kept naked under appalling conditions.
Mukoko was finally granted bail on March 2. She had to report to the Norton police twice a week, hand over the deeds to her house, worth $20,000 and pay $600. She was re-arrested in May but released a day later, apparently on the orders of President Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
She filed a constitutional challenge in February with lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa that her human rights had been violated as a result of her abduction, torture and her incommunicado detention. Other human rights and opposition activists who face similar charges and were subjected to the same conditions have applied to the Supreme Court to have their charges dropped but are awaiting hearings into their applications.
Andrew Makoni, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights’ chairperson, says that the ruling creates a solid ground for Mukoko to sue the AG’s office and the state agents.
Mukoko broke into tears as journalists, friends and relatives mobbed her when she was leaving the courtroom. She said: “Justice has just prevailed. I am so excited. Becoming a free person again in Zimbabwe.
“I did not have to go through what I went through. For a while I have been someone who was not free. I’m really going to enjoy this with my family. It did not make sense. I have never in my life done anything wrong.”
Following the Supreme Court judgement, President Robert Mugabe’s remarks about the West on the local and international stage have been noticeably conciliatory.
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