The 14 members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) who were arrested 2 weeks ago, appeared in court again on Friday and were further remanded until Tuesday. All the main WOZA officials are part of the arrested group, including coordinators Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu.

They are being charged with conducting activities that are likely to cause public disorder and with distributing false information through their fliers. The WOZA representative in the UK, Lois Davis, said if they are brought to trial they would challenge the legislation under which they are being charged, because it breaches sections of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

The WOZA members first appeared in court on May 30 and were granted bail, but the state appealed the decision. Now it is feared that they will be held much longer after government this weekend announced that they were getting tougher on activists. Deputy Attorney General Johannes Tomana told the state-run Herald newspaper that bail would be denied to 'anyone suspected of committing or inciting unrest' and it does not matter who commits the offence. "We are doing this without fear or favour. We will be tough with them now." he is quoted as saying.

Davis said 13 of the WOZA activists are being held at Chikurubi Prison for women and 1 male is at Harare Remand Prison. Their spirits are high and they have been receiving visitors and food. The human rights group Amnesty International had expressed concern that the government had been planning to torture the WOZA leaders because they had never before in the history of their street activism been denied bail, but fortunately this did not happen.

The case is now to be heard Tuesday, which falls into the government's usual pattern of delaying and then dropping charges. The time already served becomes the sentence by default.

The charges relate to a demonstration that WOZA held in Bulawayo on April 9th, the first protest on the streets after the delay in announcing the results of the March 29th elections. On that occasion a police vehicle drove into the crowd of protestors, causing some serious injuries. A total of 59 members received medical treatment for injuries caused by the vehicle and from police assaults.

Davis appealed to Zimbabweans to continue to help their cause by sending short text messages to the Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, saying WOZA members are peaceful human rights defenders who should be released immediately from custody. Chinamasa's mobile number in Zimbabwe is 011605523.

Another action that people can take is to phone the office of the acting Attorney General Bharat Patel, also urging him to release the WOZA members immediately as they have committed no crime. The number at the Attorney General's office is Harare 774587. Faxes can be sent to the Ministry Of Home Affairs at Harare 707231.