Zimbabwean gay rights workers granted bail, claim police torture

May 27, 2010, 16:18 GMT

Harare - Two employees of Zimbabwe's outspoken gay rights movement were tortured this week while being held in police cells for six days, a Harare magistrate heard Thursday.

Ellen Chademana, an administrator at the Harare offices of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), and Ignatius Muhandi, its accountant, were freed on bail on a charge of possessing pornography. They denied the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail.

Defence lawyer David Hofisi told the court that on Tuesday night drugs squad interrogators tortured them by forcing them to stand for long periods with their knees bent at right angles and their arms in front of them to force them to answer questions about GALZ's membership.

Each time Muhandi buckled, he was hit hard on the knees with a bottle.

'I am going to have to have medical treatment,' Muhandi said afterwards. 'It is very painful.'

Harare magistrate Munamate Mutevedzi told a packed court that the idea of 'a man and a man having sex ... could easily be regarded as morally reprehensible by the generality of Zimbabweans.'

However, he continued: 'Fortunately, for us as Zimbabweans, morality and the law are not the same thing. The principle is that the rights of heterosexual persons are the same as those of homosexual persuasion.'

He had been asked by state prosecutors to refuse bail for the 'very serious charge' of being in possession of pornographic material, after a police raid on the GALZ offices on Friday last week. A gay pornographic DVD was allegedly found.

He granted them bail of 200 dollars each and ordered Chademana and Muhandi, both of them married and with children, to appear again on June 10.

There has been international controversy over the sentencing last week of a male couple to 14 years in prison with hard labour for engaging in 'unnatural acts.'

President Robert Mugabe drew international criticism for an assertion that gays are 'worse than pigs and dogs.'

Gay activists pointed out that last week's raid was the first police action against the GALZ office since it was opened in 1993.

The incident has raised fears among the gay community of a campaign of persecution against them.