Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, MDC MP and Treasurer, who was detained in early November, was finally released yesterday. He was granted a Supreme Court order for his release on Monday, but administrative obstructions put up by the state delayed his release for almost 24 hours.

Dulini-Ncube was one of a number of MDC members arrested in November in a police swoop on people the government accuses of complicity in the death of Cain Nkala, a Matabeleland war veterans’ leader. Dulini, who is an insulin-dependent diabetic, was denied adequate drugs and medical attention during his detention, and suffered sight and hearing loss as a result. His freeing follows the release on Saturday of Simon Spooner.

He too was granted a Supreme Court release order, but faced similar administrative obstructions before being freed. The fate of at least eight other MDC members, thought still to be in detention, is uncertain.

The charges of murder against Spooner, Dulini-Ncube and others still stand, despite the state having no evidence to bring against those accused, after the only two “witnesses” retracted their confessions, which they said were extracted under police torture.

Members of Nkala’s family, and other sources within the Matabeleland war veterans’ organisation, say that Nkala’s murder was an “inside job”, and may also have been related to fears that Nkala may have been about to tell what he knew about the involvement of senior Zanu PF officials in the abduction, and probable murder, in June 2000 of Patrick Nabanyama, an MDC election agent.