Zimbabwe court keeps opposition leader, activists in jail

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00:00So, bad news for some of the over 160 people who have been detained in Zimbabwe since June.

00:07We were expecting today over 60 of them to be released on bail, but that was denied.

00:13These members of the opposition and activists were detained in June.

00:18Police alleged that they were conspiring to protest the president of Zimbabwe, Emerson

00:24Mnangagwa, from becoming the chairperson of the Southern African Development Committee.

00:32Their lawyers, the detainees' lawyers, argue that the constitution of Zimbabwe allows for

00:37freedom of assembly and called for the immediate release of their clients.

00:43But three months on, some of them are still behind bars.

00:46Let's take a listen to one of their lawyers today, outside the courts, on why they were

00:51denied bail.

00:52I'm sure they gave many reasons.

00:58One of which is that if admitted to bail, applicants would interfere, would not be,

01:07in fact, it would not be in the proper interest of the administration of justice if granted,

01:12if admitted to bail.

01:14That was the main reason given.

01:16And the other one is that the trial has commenced, it's now at the defence stage, and therefore

01:22very soon we should be concluding the trial.

01:26Now some of these detained activists claim that they were tortured by authorities when

01:31they were detained.

01:32One women's rights activist claimed that she had a boot stuffed in her mouth.

01:37Another teachers' unionist appeared bloodied in his first appearance in court.

01:44Amnesty International claims to have evidence of this alleged torture.

01:49And all the more reasons to give critics another reason to say that the ruling party, who has

01:54been in power since 1980, is stifling democracy.

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