AG Dumps Mukoko Abducters
THE Attorney-General’s office has ditched government officials who are being sued by Jestina Mukoko, the Zimbabwe Peace Project director, who was abducted and tortured for 21 days. The reason for the shock move remained unclear at the time of going to press yesterday.
Mukoko is seeking damages in the courts after she endured torture and humiliation at the hands of state security agents.
Over a fortnight ago, the Supreme Court ruled that her ordeal was a clear violation of the Constitution and quashed all attempts by the state to prosecute her for alleged terrorism and banditry.
The ruling, welcomed by human rights activists, boosted Mukoko’s case against the officials she held responsible for her harrowing and dehumanising experience.
With the highest court of appeal having ruled that she had been tortured and her constitutional rights violated, a lawyer said proving her case had become as easy as a hot knife cutting through butter.
And in a surprise turn of events, the AG’s office filed papers in the High Court on Friday notifying all the parties to the case that it would not represent the defendants.
The office did not give any reason except to say that: “Be pleased to take notice that the Civil Division of the Attorney-General’s office do hereby renounce agency on behalf of all the defendants.”
The defendants are the Minister of State Security, Land and Land Reform, Co- Ministers of Home Affairs, Minister of Defence, Commissioner General of Police, Chief Superintendent Magwenzi, Attorney-General of Zimbabwe, Didymus Mutasa and Brigadier General Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi.
The AG said all correspondence addressed to the defendants should now be directed to private legal practitioners, Mutamangira and Associates.
Yesterday Johannes Tomana, the AG was not immediately available to explain the reasons behind the renunciation of agency. The defendants could also not be reached.
Harrison Nkomo of Mtetwa and Nyambirai, the lawyers for Mukoko confirmed that the AG’s office had renounced agency in the matter involving their client.
Written BY : WALTER MARWIZI, The Standard
Posted by Dave Fish Eagle
on October 11, 2009. Filed under Main Headline.
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