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Bizarre twist to police brutality
Staff Reporter
POLICE have added a bizarre twist to their crackdown on legal practitioners by beating up their own lawyer.
At the weekend, police turned on state prosecutor Richard Chikosha, who represented the force in a case in which lawyers Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni were challenging their detention.
Sources told The Financial Gazette this week that officers from the Central Investigations Department's Law and Order section assaulted Chikosha at Harare Central Police station. His alleged crime was having consented to the granting of bail to Muchadehama and Makoni, who represent 13 Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists detained since March.
The two lawyers were arrested last Friday on allegations of obstructing the course of justice.
Police yesterday denied assaulting Chikosha.
Police yesterday denied assaulting Chikosha.
"As far as I am concerned, nothing happened to him," said national police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena.
But sources insist that following Chikosha's assault, police went on to defy two High Court orders for the release of Muchadehama and Makoni. They were only freed on Monday after a Harare magistrate granted them $500 000 bail each.
While the arrest of the two lawyers has refocused attention on growing police impunity, it is Chikosha's beating on Sunday that more starkly exposes the indiscriminate callousness of state security agents.
Chikosha's plight mirros that of Mutarre prosecutor Levison Chikafu, who believes he is under siege for prosecuting Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. He once fled his home after being threatened by security agents. This followed the collapse of a case in which the state claimed to have discovered an arms cache in Mutare that it alleged was linked to the opposition MDC.
Chikafu was arrested last month and later released on bail last week. He has since written to Attorney General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele to protest at the abuse he suffered in custody.
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