Rights of accused must be protected | Editors Column

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Rights of accused must be protected

Written by Editor

Monday, 05 October 2009 16:52

The ordeal endured by the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, Jestina Mukoko (pictured), began when she was abducted from her home in Norton in December last year and ended on Monday last week when the Supreme Court directed the state to stop prosecuting her.
The human rights activist, who was accused of helping to recruit bandits to be trained in Botswana for the purpose of overthrowing President Robert Mugabe, was detained at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison along with eight other activists. For a terrifying period after their arrest, Mukoko and the other detainees were held incommunicado and their whereabouts were only established after frenzied efforts by lawyers and civic organisations.
Didymus Mutasa, who was Minister of State Security at the time of Mukoko’s abduction, said she had been picked up in connection with charges pertaining to a breach of national security. However, in upholding her appeal, the Supreme Court ruled that her arrest and detention were unconstitutional. Following the Supreme Court judgment, Mukoko has begun legal action in which she is suing the state for US$510 000 in damages.
Soon after being exonerated by the Supreme Court, Mukoko told a press conference that she was excited to be a free person once again. In many other countries, rulings such as the one in the Mukoko case set a precedent ensuring that violations of citizens’ rights such as those suffered by her and the other activists who were arrested at the same time are never repeated
However in today’s Zimbabwe, the question is whether the faceless people who dream up the spurious charges that lead to the abduction, disappearance and arbitrary arrest of innocent citizens will be moved by the Supreme Court ruling? The lawlessness that pervades the country means that court orders and rulings are routinely defied and ignored.
And yet the rights of people accused of committing crimes are no less important than other civil liberties. As an American judge once said; “The history of liberty has largely been the history of procedural safeguards. Their purpose is not to convenience the guilty, but to protect the innocent.”
The disproportionate force which the police used to seize Mukoko from her home would have been unnecessary if the state had evidence to substantiate the allegations levelled against her. It is clear security agents acted as though they were in hot pursuit of a criminal armed with dangerous weapons to justify the laying of the trumped up charges against her.
They say a nation is judged by how it treats its women and children. On this score, It is tragic that there are people in positions of authority in Zimbabwe today who feel threatened by defenceless citizens who stand for what is right.
Mukoko has become the symbol of the struggle for freedom from abduction, arbitrary arrest, interrogation and imprisonment that all democratic forces in the country must continue to fight for.

Word
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” - Ephesians 3vs16-19

Comments (1)

|2009-10-06 05:49:48 bobymafi - A tip of the iceberg

We are only staring at the tip of an iceberg.There are many less celebrated names that suffered Mukoko's ordeals, the hundreds she tried to save and serve whose plight we should not forget.Some were not so fortunate and lost their lives, livelihoods and opportunities at the whim of some bloodthirsty youths and ex-combatants.War veterans should be ashamed of themselves for having fought the war of liberation for Bob and a few of his fat cats.If they cannot stand up when a country begins to stray far from its liberation ideals then they should not be offended when history judges them harshly.You are right , any government that terrorizes defenseless women children and men to protect personal privileges has lost its bearings and must be called to order.Any government that stoops so low as to abuse the law to gain and maintain political advantage is a threat to everyone and anything.

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