En fortsat retsforfølgelse af aktivisterne underminerer anmodning fra regeringen i Zimbabwe om international bistand, skriver Human Rights Watch.
JOHANNESBURG, 6.maj 2009 (HRW) – The authorities in Zimbabwe should immediately free and drop criminal charges against 15 human rights activists and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party members who were ordered back into custody on May 5, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch said that the cases were politically motivated. All had been abducted in late 2008 by officials loyal to the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), a party to Zimbabwe’s power-sharing administration with the MDC. On May 5, a magistrate in Harare formally charged the 15 with various acts of banditry and trying to recruit people for training in banditry, sabotage and insurgency, and revoked their bail. Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned that the “evidence” filed to support these charges was extracted under torture.
“Those who brought these outrageous charges should quickly drop them,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “This continued persecution makes it pretty clear that ZANU-PF is trying to undermine the new power-sharing administration and is an example of Zimbabwe’s overall lack of progress in respecting the rule of law and basic rights.”
Læs videre på: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/05/06/zimbabwe-drop-politically-motivated-charges-against-activists
