Zimbabwean government authorities continued with a crackdown on opposition political party supporters, with three more arrests made over the weekend, followed by a court appearance on Monday.
Simbarashe Zvobgo, Trymore Mubaiwa and Searchmore Mutegude ‑ were arrested in connection with deadly protests staged in Harare after the announcement of results for the harmonised elections held on July 30.
Their arrest brings to 27 the total number of people arrested since last week.
Twenty four people were arrested on Thursday, August 2 and charged with committing public violence as defined in section 36 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
The human rights lawyers told Harare magistrate Nyasha Vhitorini that most of their clients were arrested at Morgan Tsvangirai House, where they had gone to surrender some election materials and were waiting to receive their transport and food allowances after serving as election agents for the MDC Alliance party in Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe constituencies in Mashonaland East province during the just-ended elections.
Zvobgo, Mubaiwa and Mutegude appeared in court on Monday together with 24 others, where their lawyers applied for their release from custody on bail, which the National Prosecution Authority represented by Michael Reza opposed.
The accused were represented by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights lawyers Gift Mtisi, Kossam Ncube, Lizwe Jamela and Denford Halimani and James Makiyi of Makiyi and Partners Legal Practitioners, who denied that their clients committed the alleged offence.
