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Bid to free MDC activists
28/04/2008 12:27 - (SA)
Harare - Lawyers for Zimbabwe's opposition were to launch an appeal in the high court on Monday for the release of around 200 activists rounded up in a raid on the party's offices in Harare.
"We are going to make an urgent chamber application in the high court this morning to have all of them released," lawyer Alec Muchadehama told AFP.
"They have been overdetained while police are trying to find suitable charges against them. Some of them needed medical attention."
Police said they detained 215 people when they raided the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday in an operation aimed at finding suspects in a series of arson attacks in Mashonaland east, a stronghold for President Robert Mugabe.
But the MDC said at least 245 who had sought shelter at the offices from retributive attack at the hands of war veterans and ruling party militants, were rounded during the raid.
At least 30, among them elderly villagers and breastfeeding mothers and children, were released on Friday night.
The police also raided the offices of the only independent election observers in Zimbabwe and took away some files.
The MDC says at least 15 of its supporters have been killed and hundreds displaced following attacks by Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) militants following last month's general elections.
Although presidential election results are yet to be officially announced the MDC says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai was the outright winner while Zanu-PF argues there was not clear winner and that they are gearing up for a run-off.
- AFP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
