High Court orders ZRP to compensate Manjoro
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) would like to congratulate our National Programs Coordinator, Cynthia Manjoro for winning her court application for compensation of damages against the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) for violating her human rights through unlawful detention.
In a land mark ruling on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, High Court Judge Justice Mary Zimba-Dube granted Manjoro’s application for financial compensation from the ZRP to the tune of US$ 17,075.
ZimRights welcomes the judgement as it will go a long way in atoning for the unlawful arrest, torture, humiliation, familial inconveniences and assaults she went through during her long and wrongful detention on charges of murder.
Such a brave legal challenge and affirmation of her human rights by Manjoro, a testimony to her tenacious commitment to human rights and democracy, will go a long way in curtailing the excesses of the State institutions such as the police.
The stance by Manjoro should encourage other citizens to stand firm in asserting their own human rights, where these are trampled upon.
ZimRights wishes to also congratulate the judiciary for upholding justice in a manner that indicates an encouraging departure from impunity and strengthens the supremacy of the law, where the human rights of citizens are concerned.
Manjoro filed the application in 2011, with legal representation from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) attorneys, Jeremiah Bhamu and Fiona Iliff, citing the then Home Affairs Minister and the commissioner-general of ZRP and prosecutors as respondents.
Before her acquittal in September 2013, Manjoro had been detained after she was arrested, alongside 28 others, over allegations of murdering a police officer, Petros Mutedza, in Glenview, although she had convincingly stated her alibi.
While celebrating the important ruling, ZimRights calls upon all public institutions such as law enforcement agencies in Zimbabwe to all times follow their constitutional obligations to uphold the human rights of citizens.
