HARARE – Police in Harare on Monday arrested two human rights lawyers representing Citizens Coalition for Change victims of torture.
Doug Coltart and Tapiwa Muchineripi were detained overnight accused of obstructing the course of justice.
Their arrest came on the same day as President Emmerson Mnangagwa was inaugurated for a second five-year term following disputed elections.
The two lawyers were detained at a private hospital in Harare after they resisted police attempts to interview two CCC activists who were abducted and tortured last week. The lawyers argued that the two victims – Womberaiishe Nhende and Sanele Mkuhlani – were in no condition to give statements to the police yet.
Roselyn Hanzi of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said: “Associating a lawyer with the cause of their client must be condemned in the most robust sense.”
Hanzi said they had sent five lawyers – Alec Muchadehama, Beatrice Mtetwa, Jeremiah Bamu, Kelvin Kabaya and Tinashe Chinox – to fight for the release of Coltart and Muchineripi.
Nhende, the elected councillor for Ward 27 in Glen Norah and Mkuhlani were abducted close to Selbourne Rutledge School in Belvedere on September 3 by suspected state agents driving in a Toyota Fortuner and a silver Toyota Belta, according to the CCC.
They were tortured and later dumped in Mapinga, on the outskirts of Harare.
Amnesty International said in a statement: “Authorities must conduct prompt, thorough, impartial and transparent investigations into growing cases of abductions and torture of opposition political activists.”
