Zimbabwe lawyers in anti-government march

HARARE - Zimbabwean lawyers on Tuesday defied a police ban and marched through the streets of Harare to protest against government’s alleged harassment of lawyers and journalists.

The march was staged around lunch time in central Harare. The lawyers had earlier met in a hotel where a decision was taken to defy a police directive to ban the march.

Prominent human and media rights lawyers such as Beatrice Mtetwa and Alec Muchadehama took part in the lunchtime protest.

MDC legislator and parliamentary chief whip Innocent Gonese joined in the march which started at the High Court, proceeded along Samora Machel Avenue into Fourth Street and then turned into Central Avenue where the protestors gathered outside a new government complex which houses the offices of the Ministry of Justice.

The lawyers staged their peaceful protest under the watchful eye of anti-riot police outside the government offices. For about 15 minutes they hoisted placards with messages denouncing violations of lawyers and media rights.

Some of the placards read, “Stop Abductions Now” and “Rule of Law not Rule by Law.”

The police officers cooperated with the lawyers and granted access to three representatives into the government offices to present a petition.

The Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa and his deputy Jessie Majome were not in their offices when the lawyers presented the petition.

“The ministers were not in the office but out gallant sister Irene Petras slipped the petition under door for the minister to have sight of the petition upon arrival,” said a representative of the lawyers Chris Mhike.

Petras is the Director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).

Mhike said the march sought to highlight the continued harassment of lawyers in their line of duty.

“The march is a protest against the violations of the lawyer’s rights,” said Mhike.

The march by the lawyers comes barely a week after the arrest of prominent human rights lawyer Muchadehama and two Zimbabwe Independent newspaper journalists.

Muchadehama was charged with seeking to improperly release a group of human rights and political prisoners that he has been representing. A clerk of the High Court was also arrested on the same charges.

The journalists were arrested for allegedly publishing falsehoods after the Zimbabwe Independent ran a story naming members of the state security agencies who were involved in the abduction of political and human rights activists last October.

Several other lawyers have been threatened with arrest for carrying out their official duties. A High Court judge has in the past indicated that a prominent Harare rights lawyer might be charged for utterances that were made against the High Court.

The lawyer had said that the independence of the judiciary was highly compromised after the court had denied bail to a group of human and political activists facing charges of banditry and insurgency.

Two lawyers from the ZLHR were arrested in February after they presented themselves at the Harare Central police station. They intended to act on behalf of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) members who had been arrested for staging a demonstration in Harare.

The lawyers, Rose Hanzi and Tawanda Zhuwarara, were charged with inciting violence. They were granted bail and had been appearing in court on remand but were on Friday summoned to the Harare Central police station in controversial circumstances.

“We hope that the message we have been trying to get across has got through that the legal profession should be treated with the respect it deserves,” said Mhike after the march. “We should not be punished for simply exercising our duties.”

In the petition left at the Ministry of Justice, the lawyers said they wanted the government to act on the harassment.

“Your urgent attention to these issues will be sincerely appreciated,” reads the statement by the Law Society of Zimbabwe in part.

“Lawyers will be particularly grateful for an assurance from your office and the ZRP that the independence of the legal profession shall be upheld in Zimbabwe and that harassment of the legal profession shall stop immediately.”