HARARE – A judge on Friday delayed by seven days his ruling in a bail application brought by five human rights activists held over an alleged plot to overthrow the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Justice Tawanda Chitapi of the Harare High Court said he would only be able to deliver his judgment on June 7, shocking a court gallery which included families of the five who have been incarcerated since May 20.
Citizens Manifesto coordinator Tatenda Mombeyarara, 37; Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe advocacy officer George Makoni, 38; Nyasha Frank Mpahlo, 35, of Transparency International Zimbabwe; Gamuchirai Mukura, 31, the executive director of Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) and Farirai Gumbonzvanda, a 26-year-old volunteer for Rozaria Trust, were brought to court in leg irons.
The five are accused of attending “a training workshop organised by a Serbian NGO called Centre for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies with intention to subvert a constitutionally elected government of the Republic of Zimbabwe.”
The workshop, prosecutors said, “were trained on how to mobilise citizens to turn against the government of Zimbabwe and to engage in acts of civil disobedience and or resistance to any law during the anticipated national protests by anti-government movements.”
It is alleged they also “trained on how to operate small arms and to evade arrest during civil unrest” and on “counter-intelligence and acts of terrorism.”
Lawyers for the five argued that most of the group were being arrested for the first time and therefore good candidates for bail. The activists had also travelled to Zimbabwe knowing they faced arrest after state media published the allegations for which they were later arrested, the lawyers added.
Rita Nyampinga and Stabile Dewa, two other activists held on the same charges, have also applied for bail at the High Court.
The European Union has called for due process to be followed.
