The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZIHR) has appealed to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights to help pressure authorities in Harare to stop tormenting and ill treating jailed opposition activist and former parliamentarian, Roy Bennett.

In a letter to the commission filed on Wednesday this week, the ZLHR said Bennett, detained at the notorious Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, just outside Harare, was being held in deplorable conditions that could lead to serious health problems for him in future. “The continued detention of Roy Bennett under such deplorable conditions will likely lead to serious health problems,” the ZLHR’s letter to the commission reads in part.

“We call upon the authorities to take the necessary administrative and other measures as provided for in international instruments to ensure that our places of detention and prisons comply with minimal standards and norms.” Bennett was jailed for 12 months last year after ruling Zanu PF party parliamentarians used their majority in the House to vote for his imprisonment after he violently shoved Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa during debate. Prison authorities have targeted Bennett, who is white, for particular ill-treatment, the ZLHR said.

According to the lawyers group, Bennett was transferred under unclear circumstances from a rural prison in Mutoko, more than 100 km north-east of Harare, and brought to a prison congested with murderers, rapists and other hard-core criminals. The ZLHR said on the day of his arrival at Chikurubi, Bennett was made to sit in the scorching sun for two hours without explanation or justification.

He was also made to sleep on the cold floor without blankets before some inmates out of sympathy donated blankets to him. Other prisoners have however to be careful not to fraternise with Bennett in the presence of prison guards who harass and punish anyone suspected of being friendly to the former legislator. Bennett told the human rights lawyers group that at one time, prison guards poked him in the eye without provocation and that they routinely subject him to all sorts of humiliating, inhuman and degrading treatment.

He has not been given a change of prison garb for weeks on end and is being denied clean water to wash forcing him to wash in toilet basins using water meant for flushing the toilet. Bennett, whose Charleswood Estate farm in Chimanimani district was forcibly seized by the government despite court orders on the state not to take over the property, has also been denied food for days on end.

As result, Bennett has lost 27 kg and the ZLHR warned that his physical and emotional condition might deteriorate further if no immediate measures are taken to stop prison authorities from continuing harassing and victimising him. Zimbabwe Prison Service Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi could not be reached for comment on the matter.