Jan. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –
A court has ordered the release of the 26 detainees during a police operation that took place in the middle of the month in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, during a meeting of the main opposition party Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).
The operation took place on January 15 at the home of representative Costa Machingauta in Budiriro, a southwestern suburb of the capital, in the middle of the race for the presidential elections, scheduled for the end of the year, in which the country’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa part as a favorite in the midst of a climate of repression and threats against his critics, denounced CCC.
The activists, as well as Machingauta and Amos Chibaya, also a deputy, have been released on bail after magistrate Yeukai Dzuda ruled that the meeting held by the police was private, as the defendants claimed, according to the portal ‘The New Zimbabwe’.
The Police have justified the operation alleging that said meeting had not been authorized, while the opposition party has accused the Government of using the Police against political adversaries.
This same Friday, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has asked the Government of Zimbabwe to re-register hundreds of civil society groups whose organization has been invalidated, and to modify its Law on Private Voluntary Organizations to adapt it to its obligations of protect freedom of association.
The NGO has also asked the government to withdraw a controversial amendment that would prohibit groups from carrying out “political” activities under the threat of criminal sanctions.
The repression of civil society organizations in Zimbabwe must stop, especially in view of this year’s general elections,” said Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy director for Africa at Human Rights Watch.
“The Government”, he added, “must stop using the Law on Private Voluntary Organizations as a tool to silence the exercise of fundamental democratic rights”.
