#Tajamuka spokesman abducted, later found in hospital
By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |
An alert by the citizen activist group, #Tajamuka, issued late Tuesday says their spokesperson, Silvanos Mudzvova, has been hospitalised after being abducted by unknown men suspected to be security agents who tortured him.
#Tajamuka has been active in organising civil protests against President Robert Mugabe since July and most of its leaders have been arrested and brought before the courts where their cases on inciting public violence are still pending.
They have reported torture in police detention and spent long periods in jail without bail.
According to the #Tajamuka statement, six men forcibly took Mudzvova away from his home in Harare close to midnight on Tuesday.
“The unidentified held his family at gunpoint until they abducted him (Mudzvova) upon arrival at his homestead. No-one could identify the vehicle that these abductors were using,” said #Tajamuka.
It added: “We condemn in the strongest terms the abductions and arbitrary arrests of citizens by the State on frivolous and trumped charges.”
The group said it later discovered that Mudzvova had been detained at the Avenues Clinic in the capital after “sustaining various injuries during torture”.
The Zimbabwean police are under immense attack for using illegal means to cow critics of the government, among them enforced disappearances, torture and intimidation.
Over the years, opponents of Zanu PF and Mugabe have disappeared and resurfaced in police custody, among them Jestina Mukoko, the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP).
Last year, unknown men abducted Itai Dzamara, a journalist turned political activist, from his suburb in Glen View and his whereabouts remain a mystery.
Western embassies, political parties and human rights defenders have decried police heavy handedness in responding to demonstrations by citizens against the sitting government. Nehanda Radio
