‘Abducted’ activist Gift Ostallos Siziba now in police custody – lawyer
A Zimbabwe activist who was reported abducted during protests in Harare on Friday has been found in police custody, a human rights lawyer said.
Irene Petras of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said in a tweet: “@ZLHRLawyers managed 2 locate Ostallos Siziba who was reportedly abducted today. He is in police custody & being legally represented.”
Student leader Siziba was reportedly shoved into a silver car as opposition supporters who had tried to stage a march calling for electoral reforms were chased into the centre of Harare by police with teargas and water cannons.
Few Zimbabweans have forgotten activist Itai Dzamara, who was abducted from a Harare barber shop in March 2015 after calling on longtime Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe to step down. Dzamara has not been seen since.
ZLHR said its lawyers were attending to a group of people arrested during Friday’s protest but did not give an exact figure.
In the last two months, protests have become a near-daily occurrence in this once-prosperous southern African country which has been under the iron grip of Mugabe since independence in 1980.
Evan Mawarire, the man who began the online protest #ThisFlag movement in April and helped many Zimbabweans rise up and confront the government tweeted from exile: “GOVT is breaking the law & harming citizens but we are resolute & United. Enough is enough.” News24
