Four Human Rights Activists Held In Zimbabwe : Lawyers

Sumaira FH Published May 21, 2019 | 05:27 PM

Authorities in Zimbabwe have detained four human rights campaigners on their return home from a foreign trip and seized their cellphones and laptops, lawyers said Tuesday

Harare, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st May, 2019 ) :Authorities in Zimbabwe have detained four human rights campaigners on their return home from a foreign trip and seized their cellphones and laptops, lawyers said Tuesday.

"They were detained upon disembarking from a South African flight at Robert Mugabe International Airport last night and held for several hours without access to their lawyers," Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights spokesman Kumbirai Mafunda said.

The men arrested late Monday were identified as George Makoni, 38, advocacy officer for the NGO Centre for Community Development Zimbabwe; Tatenda Mombeyarara, 37, co-ordinator for lobby group Citizens Manifesto; Gamuchirai Mukura, 31, executive director of Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD); and Nyasha Mpahlo, 35, governance officer at Transparency International Zimbabwe.

Lawyers were granted access to the four at Harare's central police station, five hours after the arrest, Mafunda told AFP.

Police could not be reached for confirmation and it was not clear where the four had come from.

Their arrest came days after state-owned daily The Herald ran a story claiming that "a group of shady organisations with links to the (main opposition) MDC-Alliance has been hard at work laying the groundwork for civil unrest to be unleashed next month."The newspaper said some activists had attended a workshop on the Maldives archipelago that was conducted by a non-profit Serbian organisation, Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS).