SW Radio Africa (London)
Tichaona Sibanda
3 June 2008
Arthur Mutambara, leader of the smaller MDC formation was on Tuesday released on Z$20 billion bail and ordered to report every Friday to the Law and Order section at Harare Central police station.
Mutambara's lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said he was also ordered to surrender his title deeds until 17 June when he appears in court before provincial magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe.
Mutambara was arrested Sunday morning from his Harare home in Marlborough and detained at the infamous Matapi Police Station in Mbare. He was picked up on allegations of publishing falsehoods and for being in contempt of the High Court for criticising Judge Tendai Uchena's decision not to order the ZEC to release presidential elections on time.
The article appeared in The Standard newspaper on 20th April. The editor of the weekly paper Davison Maruziva is set to go on trial on Thursday for publishing the article authored by Mutambara.
The state alleges that the most offensive part of the article read: 'Our country is characterised by extreme illegitimacy where we have an imbecilic and cynical military junta running the affairs of the country.'
Mtetwa told Newsreel she gave notice to the court that Mutambara will challenge the constitutionality of the two sections of the Criminal Codification Act under which he is being charged in the Supreme Court.
'We view the charges as being not reasonably justifiable in a democratic society and in breach of section 20 of the Constitution, because they remove the right to freedom of expression and the right to hold divergent opinions,' Mtetwa said.
Mtetwa said in 2005 Robert Mugabe had described a judgement from the same Judge Tendai Uchena as 'nonsense and rubbish' after allowing MDC treasurer-general Roy Bennett to file his nomination papers seeking re-election as the MDC MP for the Chimanimani constituency.
'While Mutambara did not use abusive language towards Judge Uchena it's clear that the president used derogatory language for which he was never prosecuted or asked to explain,' Mtetwa added.
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