BULAWAYO – New York Times correspondent Jeffrey Moyo remains in jail despite a High Court judge ordering his release on Z$5,000 bail on Monday, with officers at the Bulawayo Central Prison rejecting his warrant of liberation claiming it has an error, his attorneys said.
Moyo, 37, was arrested in Harare last month and charged with violating the Immigration Act after allegedly presenting false information to authorities to help his visiting colleagues from the leading United States newspaper Joao Silva and Christina Goldbaum gain entry into Zimbabwe for a reporting assignment.
He is also accused of securing fake accreditation credentials for them from the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) after conniving with an official from the regulatory body Thabang Farai Manhika, who also remains in jail.
Moyo was initially denied bail by Bulawayo magistrate Rachel Mukanga who ruled that he was facing serious state security charges before she was overruled by the High Court late Monday.
His lawyers Doug Coltart protested Moyo’s continued detention calling it “illegal.”
“This is despite us obtaining a High Court order yesterday the 14th of June. He is being detained on the supposed grounds that there is an error on his warrant of liberation,” he told ZimLive.
Coltart said the legal team tried to see “a copy of the warrant of liberation that was issued by the magistrates’ court earlier this afternoon” but that the “request was refused precisely because we were concerned that this tactic would be used as has been used in other political cases.”
He continued: “Again at the prison, the legal team requested to see the warrant of liberation that they are claiming has an error on it and that request was once again refused. So Jeff is currently being illegally detained at Bulawayo Central Prison.”
The New York Times issued a statement as Moyo made his first court appearance last month saying: “We are deeply concerned by Jeffrey Moyo’s arrest and are assisting his lawyers to secure his timely release.
“Jeffrey is a widely respected journalist with many years of reporting experience in Zimbabwe and his detainment raises troubling questions about the state of press freedom in Zimbabwe.”
