First two of 16 MDC detainees freed on bail

Two of 16 political prisoners held by
Zimbabwean authorities for up to five months and allegedly subjected to
torture have been released on bail, their lawyers said Sunday. Fidelis
Chiramba, a 72-year-old local Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activist
who developed cardiac failure following his arrest in October, and Broderick
Takawira, a programme officer with a respected local NGO, were freed
Saturday, said lawyer Andrew Makoni.

The release of the detainees follows an undertaking made by
President Robert Mugabe last week to MDC leader and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.

The detainees were abducted by state secret police and held in
secret locations for three months before being handed over to police.

Their release has become one of the key sources of dispute
within the three-week-old coalition government, and repeatedly threatened to
derail the agreement as Mugabe and his officials stalled and mounted
obstructions in the face of an international outcry.

Charges of "insurgency, banditry and sabotage" or of setting off
bombs in police station were pressed against them, after they had been in
illegal custody for four months. They were all tortured to force them to
sign fake confessions, lawyers said.

Makoni said hoped another 11 would be released on Monday. Bail
of 600 US dollars had already been raised for them, but lawyers were now
searching for a 20,000-dollar surety for each against their property,
demanded by state lawyers.

"Most of them are impecunious, they don't have any property and
don't have access to money like that. So we are going to ask the court
tomorrow to revise the bail conditions," Mukoni said.

He also hoped that the supreme court would this week reverse
lower court rulings denying bail for the remaining three, including
journalist Andrison Manyere and Gandhi Mudzingwa, one of Tsvangirai's key
aides.

The deal excludes white farmer Roy Bennett, Tsvangirai's popular
deputy agriculture minister designate who was arrested on similar charges on
February 13 shortly before he was due to be sworn in with the other 61
ministers and their deputies in the new power-sharing administration.

MDC officials confirmed that on Friday Tsvangirai met Mugabe to
demand an explanation why his undertaking of a week ago to release the
prisoners, of the detainees, had not yet been carried out.

Mugabe immediately summoned justice minister Patrick Chinamasa
to the meeting and instructed him to release them.

At a meeting soon after between state and defence lawyers, the
detainees' lawyers agreed to the stiff bail conditions.

They also said that the state was demanding that as part of
their release conditions, the detainees also promise to withdraw charges
laid against security agents for illegal arrest and torture.

Beatrice Mtetwa, head of the defence team, would not say Sunday
if this condition had been agreed to. "We will let you know when they have
been released. I don't want to jeopardise their case," she said.

All of the 16 men and women were subjected to prolonged and
severe torture, according to affidavits from them presented to court,
including being beaten at length on the soles of their feet, half- drowning,
electroshock, being hung upside down by their feet for and being locked in a
freezer for hours on end.