Zimbabwe police charged a top rights activist with a litany of offences Friday, her lawyer said, deepening an apparent government crackdown just days before Zimbabweans vote on a new constitution. "Police have charged her for allegedly operating an unregistered organisation," Jestina Mukoko's lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, told AFP. Other charges against Mukoko included the smuggling of radio sets and mobile phones and broadcasting without a licence, Nkomo added.
"They have released her into our custody and said they will call us when they are ready to go to court." The allegations come ahead of a March 16 referendum on a new constitution and crunch elections that will decide who will lead the country. Mukoko handed herself over to police Friday morning accompanied by her lawyers and spent three hours with the authorities as the charges were read.
Nkomo described the meeting as "cordial". The charges against Mukoko come weeks after a raid at the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) where she is the director. In 2008, Mukoko was seized from her home and detained at an undisclosed location before being taken to the notorious Chikurubi prison, a maximum-security centre outside Harare. Her lawyers claimed state agents severely tortured her and forced her to confess to banditry and treason.
She was charged in 2009 with plotting to overthrow long-ruling President Robert Mugabe, but the charges were later dismissed. The prosecution also accused her of recruiting people for terror training in neighbouring Botswana, a claim rejected by Botswana and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
State media on Friday quoted police commissioner general, Augustine Chihuri appealing to people knowing Mukoko's whereabouts to report to any police station. Amnesty International called state television's broadcast, implying Mukoko was on the run, as "a new low in the recent crackdown on dissent."