HARARE – The State has been forced to drop charges against 35 observers from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and the Election Resource Centre (ERC), arrested on Election Day last year for allegedly attempting to announce the poll results.
Prosecutor Lancelot Mutsokoti admitted the state failed to find evidence sufficient to pin down the suspects for the past nine months.
“We are dropping charges before plea because we have failed to get any evidence against the accused persons,” said the prosecutor when the group appeared before Harare magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa on Thursday.
Their lawyer Alec Muchadehama said, “We are now going after our clients’ gadgets which were seized when they were arrested”.
“There was no any offence committed as we had insisted from the time they were arrested,” he added.
The 35 were arrested on allegations of breading the Electoral Act.
They had challenged their placement on remand arguing that their arrest was unlawful.
On their initial remand, the suspects raised complaints over the way they were arrested, claiming it was degrading.
The observers complained that they were tortured before they were brought to court.
Muchadehama said they were made to lie on their stomachs while their cell phones, laptops and other gadgets they were using were taken away.
“They were held incommunicado. Upon being taken illegally, the police seized each of the accused persons’ personal cell phones, asked for the passwords, switched them off and put some on flight mode before they took them away.
“They were not able to communicate with their spouses, relatives, legal practitioners, doctors or anyone else.
“This is a clear violation of the constitution which prescribes that an accused person must be able to communicate with the outside world upon arrest,” said Muchadehama.
The lawyer said his clients were detained in “stinky cells full of bugs with no ablution facilities”.
