10 April, 2003
Well-wishers foil police attempt to defy High Court ruling and take Paul Themba Nyathi to Khami Prison
Paul Themba Nyathi, the MDC’s Secretary for Information and Publicity, was today released without charge on the orders of High Court Judge Justice Mafiosi Cheda after the state failed to show any case as to why he should remain in custody.
However, before his release late in the afternoon, Detective Inspector Madira and Detective Inspector Musuna had attempted to defy the court order by clandestinely and secretly, behind Mr. Nyathi’s lawyer’s back, take Mr. Nyathi for formal remand before a magistrate court so that he could be remanded in custody at Khami Prison. This attempt was foiled only because well-wishers who saw Mr. Nyathi being shepherded around the corridors of the Tredgold Magistrate’s Court building telephoned Mr. Mathonsi, Mr. Nyathi’s lawyer and advised him that his client was at the Magistrate’s court at Tredgold building. Mr. Mathonsi rushed to Tredgold building and displayed the High Court order, and only then was Mr. Nyathi returned from the cells into which he had been placed pending transfer to Khami Prison. Confronted with the court order, inspectors Madira and Musuna pretended not to have been aware of the High Court order, when infact Madira was at the High Court when the order was issued and had undertaken to Mr. Mathonsi that Mr. Nyathi was to be released pursuant to that order.
The MDC condemns unreservedly this continuing abuse of police powers of arrest by officers Madira and Musuna, whose names, it will be remembered, appear on the MDC list of abusive police officers who torture innocent people in police custody.
We once again deplore and condemn the unprofessional conduct of the ZRP in acting as Zanu PF militia and arresting people without reasonable suspicion, contrary to the constitution of Zimbabwe as exemplified by the arrest and detention of Mr. Nyathi for four days in complete contravention of the law, which not only requires that arrest should be effected where there is reasonable suspicion of the commitment of an offence, but also that any person so arrested shall be brought before a court no later than 48 hours from the time of the arrest. In the arrest of Mr. Nyathi, not only was there no reasonable suspicion, but there was also a failure to bring him to court with the stipulated 48 hours. For the entire 4 days, Madira and Musuna remained clueless as to what factual foundation there was to charge Mr. Nyathi. They could not even formulate a coherent charge against him, and resorted to crude attempts to force him to answer questions in the hope that in the process he might tell them something, which they could use as a factual foundation to formulate some charges against him.
Professor Welshman Ncube
MDC Secretary General
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