Lawyer in urgent application for release of journalists in Zimbabwe

Apr 6, 2008, 12:20 GMT

Harare - The lawyer for two foreign journalists arrested while covering Zimbabwe's elections made an urgent application Sunday for the release of the two men on the third day of their detention.

Barry Bearak, a correspondent for the New York Times and Stephen Bevan, a freelance journalist with the Sunday Telegraph, were arrested on Thursday night during a police raid on a tourist lodge in Harare in an attempted crackdown on the scores of foreign journalists covering the elections without accreditation.

President Robert Mugabe's media authorities granted accreditation to only a handful of foreign journalists from what they called 'friendly countries.'

Lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa filed papers in the High Court in Harare after being told by police that the pair now faced 'new charges' of 'illegally observing elections without accreditation.'

The government banned all Western countries from sending observers, issuing invitations to only 17 countries that included Sudan, Russia, Iran and China.

Bearak and Bevan were initially accused under draconian media laws that impose penalties of up to two years in jail for working without official accreditation, of allegedly 'holding themselves up as accredited journalists.'

The attorney-general found no case against them and they were supposed to be released on Friday, said Mtetwa.

'But police refused (to release them), on the basis they were waiting for orders from above. Then yesterday (Saturday) they brought new charges.'

The new charges carry penalties ranging from a fine to two years in prison. The court has not yet issued a date for their hearing.

Asked about their condition at Harare central police station, Mtetwa said as 'ok as one can be in that filthy place.'

In the last elections in 2005, two journalists from Britain's Sunday Telegraph were arrested under the notorious media laws, but were acquitted when police were unable to produce evidence against them.

Last year, a journalist from Time magazine was arrested, held for a few days and released after paying a small fine.