President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime continues to be in the spotlight home and abroad due to unending allegations of suppression and persecution of dissent through torture, abductions and arrests.
On Thursday evening, opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) MP Gladys Hlatywayo and senator Jameson Timba were allegedly held by security agents at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport and their passports were confiscated for a while.
Hlatywayo said the agents were demanding to know where the opposition politicians were coming from.
“Myself and Sen. Jameson Timba just had a very bizarre experience at Harare International Airport where regime agents tried to arrest us and took away our passports, demanding to know where we were coming from. Surely ours is a banana republic! We are citizens and not subjects,” she said.
Earlier this week, former opposition MP for Mabvuku-Tafara, James Chidhakwa was reportedly abducted and tortured by unknown assailants. He was injected with an unknown substance before being dumped in Arcturus, severely injured.
Chidhakwa’s dreadlocks were shaved off using a sharp object. He is currently at a local hospital where party leader Nelson Chamisa and other officials are still visiting him.
This is happening at a time when the international community is already condemning the pre-trial detention of former CCC MP Job Sikhala who has been in prison for 501 days for allegedly inciting public violence.
Khanyo Farisè, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for East and Southern Africa, argues that the incarceration of Sikhala “exemplifies how authorities are abusing the courts to silence opposition leaders.”
“Job Sikhala’s prolonged detention while he awaits trial is a gross miscarriage of justice and an indictment of Zimbabwe’s judicial system. It exemplifies how authorities are abusing the courts to silence opposition leaders, human rights defenders, activists, journalists and other critical dissenting voices.
“Authorities must stop weaponising the law to target opposition figures and ordinary citizens. The relentless harassment and intimidation of activists and human rights defenders via the courts must end. Everyone should be able to exercise their freedom of expression without any fear of reprisals.
“The right to a fair trial is recognised internationally as a fundamental human right and Zimbabwean authorities are required to respect it. The charges against him are politically motivated as based solely on the peaceful exercise of his human rights.
“The authorities have also failed to demonstrate the necessity of his detention awaiting trial. We call for his immediate and unconditional release. The international community must strongly condemn the continued harassment against him,” Farisè said.