HARARE – Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) lawmaker Joanna Mamombe and fellow party activist Cecilia Chimbiri heaved a sigh after the High Court found them not guilty in a case in which they had been accused of faking their 2020 abduction.
The state accused the activists, who include the now exiled Netsai Marova, of publishing falsehoods.
The charges stem from a 2020 incident in which they claimed to have been seized from the hands of police officers in Harare by suspected state agents who drove them to a secluded place outside the capital to be subjected to horrendous acts of torture and sexual assault.
The three met their ordeal after they got arrested at a police roadblock after staging a flash anti-government demonstration in Harare’s Warren Park suburb alongside other party activists.
After a public alarm was raised over their disappearance by friends and their party, they were later located in Bindura, some 70km outside Harare soiled and bruised.
The trio could hardly walk following the ordeal.
They would later spend some time in hospital nursing injuries before being dragged to court accused of lying about their abduction in order to soil the Zanu PF led government’s image.
But following an anguished three years of frequenting the courts, Mamombe and Chimbiri finally walked free, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) confirmed Tuesday.
“Zim High Court has vindicated 2 victims of torture, Harare West MP Hon. @JoanaMamombe & @ceechimbiri2, one of opposition @CCCZimbabwe party leaders by acquitting them on charges of communicating falsehoods for allegedly faking their abduction&torture in 2020,” said ZLHR.
