Missing human rights activist Mukoko appears in court (2nd Roundup)

Dec 24, 2008, 20:52 GMT

Harare - Zimbabwean human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who had been missing for three weeks, appeared in court Wednesday charged with plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe's regime, but was released to a medical clinic for treatment amid allegations of torture.

Mukoko, a director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was abducted from her home three weeks ago and had been missing since. It remains unclear where Mukoko was held over the past three weeks. Police have denied she was in custody.

Mugabe has faced growing calls from governments around the world to resign. Opposition leaders in the country say dozens of their members have been abducted over the last two months.

High Court judge Yunus Omarjee ordered Mukoko and eight others to be released to a medical clinic and be granted access to legal representation pending a magistrate court appearance Monday.

They will be kept 'under police guard where they should be accorded full access to their legal practitioners, relatives,' read judge Omarjee's ruling.

Omarjee also ordered the unconditional release of 12 other activists being held by police and called for the release of another 11 whose whereabouts are still unknown.

Mukoko and the others face charges of banditry, which carries the death penalty. Mukoko allegedly tried to recruit people for military training in Botswana to try to overthrow Mugabe's government, according to state media.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have denied training banditry, claiming Mugabe is using the charges to declare a state of emergency. New York-based Human Rights Watch said the charges 'seem politically motivated.'

Zimbabwe authorities should free Jestina Mukoko instead of tossing patently ludicrous charges at her,' Georgette Gagnon, Africa director of Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

'Her case underlines our grave concerns for the whereabouts of the dozens of other rights activists and MDC supporters who remain `disappeared,' Gagnon said.

The activists include a husband, wife and two-year-old boy. Both parents had been abducted but were apparently kept in separate places. The two-year-old toddler in her mother's hands cried after seeing his father.

The group's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, told journalists outside the court late Wednesday that Omarjee had released some of the detained to a clinic as they had been allegedly tortured.

'They are allegations that they have been tortured,' she said. 'They were being blindfolded before they were taken to the police (when the torture took place).'

Zimbabwe's opposition has in the past accused state agents of torturing people in order to get false confessions.

Since their abductions the police denied claims that they had been holding any of them when lawyers for the accused asked for their clients to be brought to court.

Irene Petras, director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said earlier Wednesday that Mukoko and others detained had been denied access to a lawyer.

Petras said her organization was 'extremely concerned by the contempt by the police of High Court orders by failing or refusing to work with lawyers to ensure that the missing persons are urgently located and brought before a court of law or released forthwith.'

The MDC claims it has more than 25 supporters who have been abducted since October, including a 2-year-old toddler.

'These individuals have fundamental rights and freedoms which are being violated with complete impunity,' Petras said.

Last week members of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights took to the streets of Harare to highlight the former broadcaster's plight. They carried banners protesting against what they say was the abduction of a number of human rights activists and MDC supporters since October.

According to a police statement cited in state media, one of the arrested tried to recruit a police constable to undergo military training in Botswana with a view to forcibly deposing Mugabe's government and replacing it with one led by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.