Harare — More than 70 activists were acquitted Wednesday after being arrested in Zimbabwe in June for disorderly conduct for allegedly planning to peacefully demonstrate during a meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Jeremiah Bamu of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights is representing 78 opposition activists who were arrested in mid-June at the home of Jameson Timba, the acting opposition leader of the Citizens Coalition for Change. The activists were charged with participating in a public gathering with the intent to promote public violence and disorderly conduct in a public place.
"They were all found not guilty and were acquitted on the second count of one disorderly conduct in a public place," Bamu said outside the Harare Magistrates Court. "And with respect to the first count of participating in a public gathering with intent to promote public violence, [at] least 11 of them were discharged at the close of the state's case, with the remaining being put to their defense. We then made an application for an inspection in loco [on the spot] before we begin the defense case in earnest."
The minister of home affairs, Kazembe Kazembe, said the activists were arrested in June because of plans to protest at the Southern African Development Community meeting held last month in Harare.
Others were arrested in other parts of the country, bringing the tally to more than 100.
Among those was 25-year-old Namatai Kwekweza, a human rights activist and feminist advocate who was arrested along with Robson Chere and Samuel Gwenzi, and forcibly removed from a domestic plane. Later in court, the trio said they had been tortured while in police detention. They were granted bail and released on September 4.
"We appeared before the court, and the appeal was dealt with, and the appellants have been granted bail," said Charles Kwaramba of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who is representing them. "Our appeal succeeded -- pay $150 as bail sums, and ... report every Friday of the month end."
The activists' arrests attracted international condemnation.
"I am both delighted and relieved that the three have been released on bail," said Mary Lawlor, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights defenders. "That being said, it is a travesty of justice that they were detained in the first place. .... The charges should be dropped, and an investigation opened into the circumstances of their detention, which the ruling party has admitted as being politically motivated and linked to the SADC summit."
She continued, "I further call for all those human rights defenders who remain in detention to be released. It is time for Zimbabwe to stop playing games and step up as a responsible member of the international community and abide by its freely assumed international human rights obligations."
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Khanyo Farisè, Amnesty International's deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa, agreed that all those arrested should be discharged.
"All these activists committed no offense but have been arbitrarily arrested and detained for exercising their human rights," he said. "This, in violation of Zimbabwe's constitutional and international human rights obligations. We therefore urge the government to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all those detained for exercising their rights. The charges against them must be dropped."
Rights groups have criticized Zimbabwe for human rights abuses for decades, going back at least to the early 2000s, when the government of then-President Robert Mugabe engaged in alleged election rigging and forced thousands of white commercial farmers off their land.
Mugabe's successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa -- who is in China -- has maintained that he is a constitutionalist and respects human rights.
Officials of his administration refused to comment Wednesday.
