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Zim union leaders refused bail
12/05/2008 16:28 - (SA)
Michael Hamlyn
Cape Town - Two leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were remanded in custody on Monday after having spent the weekend in jail on incitement charges
The magistrate Olivia Mariga declined to grant them bail, saying the pair were not suitable and that they have to be in custody in the interest of justice. Her one-sentence judgement was preceded by the Mugabe regime suggesting that it would evoke certain sections of the law that give it power to override the court's decision if the magistrate had bailed them.
The state claimed that ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington Chibebe would abscond if they were given bail, despite the fact that they had given themselves up to the police voluntarily.
A ZCTU statement distributed in this country by Cosatu also noted that the state said the two would commit similar offences and threaten witnesses.
The statement said the men were arrested after they presented themselves to the police on last Thursday, when they were initially interrogated for more than six hours before charges were laid against them.
They had gone to the police after armed constables had visited their residences searching for them.
Trade union lawyer Aleck Muchandehama was said to be making frantic efforts to lodge an appeal against the judgement at the high court.
During a court hearing on Saturday, the prosecutor tried to link the case to the current wave of political violence in the country.
- I-Net Bridge
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