Zimbabwe Has 'No Intention' of Releasing Activists

[tekisui]

Source: AFP

HARARE (AFP) – The Zimbabwean regime of Robert Mugabe has "no intention" of releasing a top rights activist and several opposition figures accused of recruiting anti-government plotters, a defence lawyer said Friday.

"Nothing has changed. The police have not moved an inch and our clients are still detained at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison including the two-year-old child," Alec Muchadehama, told AFP.

"The state is in contempt of court. The reason they brought some of them to court is for public relations purposes to save their image but the truth is that they have no intention of releasing them," he said.

High court judge Yunus Omerjee had late Wednesday ordered the immediate release of Jestina Mukoko and several opposition figures accused of plotting against Mugabe.

"They are not explaining why they are holding the people. They are also denying us access to ...our clients who are in police custody. The police are acting as if they are the law unto themselves," Muchadehama said.

Mukoko, director of Zimbabwe Peace Project -- a rights group which has been compiling cases of election violence -- was seized from her home on December 3 by armed men who identified themselves as police.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081226/wl_africa_afp/zimbabwepoliticsrights;_ylt=AlfDYKDXpXNaCtDorYzanz9vaA8F