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Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. ACQUITTAL of three Zimbabwean human rights activists by the courts on disorderly conduct charges more than a year after their arrest highlights the authorities’ misuse of the criminal justice system against dissident, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.
Zimbabwean authorities should end politically-motivated arrest and prosecution of human rights defenders, activists and journalists, HRW added.
On August 21, 2025, a Harare Magistrates Court acquitted human rights activists Robson Chere (41), Namatai Kwekweza (26) and Samuel Gwenzi (40).
This was after the three were pulled off a Victoria Falls-bound plane by State agents on July 31, 2024, before takeoff at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport and held incommunicado for nearly eight hours.
The arrests appeared to be part of an intensified campaign against opposition and civic society groups ahead of the Southern African Development Community Summit of Heads of State and Government in Harare in August 2024.
“The baseless prosecution of the three human rights activists shed a spotlight on unjust arrests, mistreatment and politically-motivated trials in Zimbabwe,” said Idriss Ali Nassah, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“It shouldn’t have taken a year for the defendants to be acquitted. Such cases need to end.”
The police had charged them for participating in an illegal protest outside the Harare Magistrates Court in June 2024.
United Nations special rapporteurs described the charges against the three activists as “baseless” and “being used as a fig-leaf to target human rights defenders and opposition voices for calling for greater democracy, human rights and accountability in Zimbabwe”.
Initially, a Harare magistrate had denied the three bail, ruling that they were likely to abscond or commit other offences and that their release could undermine delivery of justice.
In September 2024, the High Court granted them bail, after they had spent 35 days in detention.
The trial began on September 5.
The prosecution continued with the proceedings for nearly a year, even after Kwekweza demonstrated that she was not in the country when the alleged offence occurred.
During trial, the activists’ lawyers adduced evidence of torture and other forms of ill-treatment.
Doctors determined that Chere had suffered extensive soft tissue injuries and was in urgent need of treatment to prevent permanent kidney damage.
Gwenzi, a member of a local council and a human rights activist, said his interrogators had assaulted him and threatened to harm his family.
According to HRW, the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, which took over power in a military coup in 2017, has committed serious human rights violations and has failed to institute promised reforms to improve respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
The authorities have arbitrarily prosecuted critics of the government on baseless charges, the HRW added.
“The year-long prosecution of these three activists and other peaceful critics of the government on baseless charges shows Zimbabwe government’s lack of resolve to institute lasting human rights reforms,” Nassah said.
“Zimbabwe authorities should respect the right to fair trial for everyone in line with the government’s domestic and international obligations and stop weaponising the criminal justice system against human rights defenders, activists and journalists.”
The Constitution of Zimbabwe as well as the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Zimbabwe ratified, protect the rights to freedom of association and expression.
The two treaties also provide for the pre-trial rights of detainees, as well as freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Source: NewsDay
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