A COURT in Zimbabwe has freed on bail a human rights activist who was imprisoned for the past five weeks for allegedly giving false information to an international watchdog body about state-sponsored murder at recently discovered diamond fields.
International human rights groups had raised concerns over Farai Maguwu’s safety and health and called for his immediate release. The “blood diamond” activist was arrested on June 2nd and charged in court, but he has been denied bail on several previous occasions because prosecutors warned he may disrupt their investigation.
Prosecutors had argued the head of the Centre for Research and Development, who has been cataloguing human rights abuses at the Marange mines in the east of the country since 2008, could interfere with witnesses that investigating police officers needed to interview for their case.
However, high court judge Mawadze Gurainesu dismissed the state’s argument on Monday, saying Maguwu’s “liberty should not be trampled upon on for flimsy reasons”. Maguwu was freed on €1,200 bail on condition he surrender his passport, report daily to his local police station and remain within 40km of his home in the eastern city of Mutare.
Maguwu’s lawyer, Trust Mhanda said his client was in good health and had not been ill-treated while in detention. “He is fine, he wasn’t abused. He was kept in shackles day and night, which was very uncomfortable for him.
“His main complaint is his incarceration has kept him away from his work, so the government has been able to do what it wants at the diamond fields without any scrutiny,” he said.
Maguwu denies possessing false information on the killing and torture of illegal miners and local villagers by Zimbabwe’s military and police. However, documents allegedly produced by him show that state security forces dispatched to secure the Marange diamond fields from illegal miners were behind the murder of at least 200 people.
Blood diamond activists allege that human rights abuses and other corrupt activities are taking place at the mines now controlled by the government. Although a South African Kimberley Process (diamond certification scheme) monitor, who went to Zimbabwe in recent months, said the operation met the organisation’s minimum standards, the body has yet to sanction the sale of its diamonds on the international market. Last month at a meeting in Israel, KP members ended deadlocked over whether or not to give Zimbabwe’s diamonds the stamp of approval.
President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party stand accused of already benefiting from the illegal sale of some diamonds, but the ruling party has denied the allegation. Mr Mugabe recently insisted Zimbabwe would sell its diamonds one way or another, as the revenue is needed to rebuild the economy. He has criticised the KP saying it was a Western tool being used to impose illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe.