Three Zimbabwean activists who were dramatically arrested after being forcibly removed from a plane last month have been refused bail, on the eve of a high-profile international summit in the country.
Robson Chere, Namatai Kwekweza and Samuel Gwenzi were charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly protesting outside court in June over the arrest of dozens of opposition supporters.
According to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the judge ruled that they were likely to abscond, commit other crimes and cause public dismay.
A lawyer representing the trio said they were held for hours without access to legal representation and were tortured immediately after their arrest.
The three were en route to the Zimbabwean resort town of Victoria Falls to attend a conference when they were dragged off a domestic flight.
Mr Chere – the leader of a teachers’ union – wore bloodied clothes and limped in pain during his first court appearance earlier this month.
Women’s rights advocate Ms Kwekweza said she was not even in the country when the alleged offences occurred. Her lawyer told an earlier hearing that she had a boot stuffed in her mouth during interrogation.
Mr Gwenzi’s lawyer, a local councillor and human rights activist, also described how his client’s interrogators threatened to harm his family.
UN-appointed human rights experts have called for the group to be released immediately and for all charges against them to be dropped.
On Saturday, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa will officially assume the chairmanship of the 16-nation southern African bloc, the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).
The summit will be held in the capital Harare, with many other heads of state attending.
Human rights groups say more than 160 opposition politicians, activists and union leaders have been arrested by Zimbabwean authorities since mid-June.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said they had found evidence of torture and believed the arrests posed a dangerous backdrop to Sadc’s commitment to human rights under Mr Mnangagwa’s leadership.
In a joint statement, the two human rights groups called on Sadc leaders to condemn Zimbabwe’s human rights violations and press for the release of those arrested.
According to ZLHR, in recent days, two politicians from the main opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) have also been arrested.
