HUMAN rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa yesterday described her recent arrest over allegations of attempting to defeat the course of justice, as an attack on all human rights lawyers.
REPORT BY CHARLES LAITON/HARDLIFE SAMUWI
Mtetwa was speaking to journalists at the High Court in Harare, moments after being released on $500 bail by High Court judge Justice Joseph Musakwa.
“It’s not a personal attack on me, but it’s a personal attack on all human rights lawyers,” she said.
“ I was just being used as the example and I am the first one, but there will be many more to follow.
“You know we are going into election mode so the warning is that if you think you can continue doing this and call yourself foolish human rights lawyers, this is what will happen to you and we will start with her.”
Mtetwa said she was denied her rights while in remand prison following her arrest on March 17 for allegedly obstructing the course of justice.
“My lawyers were restricted to see me and the police were definitely all out to get me,” she said.
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“They wanted me to feel they are mighty and I felt it, but obviously you have to understand that I was in custody because the police wanted me to be in custody.”
Mtetwa warned all human rights lawyers to be careful when attending to crime scenes involving human rights as they risked being incarcerated.
“The judge said that there has to be mutual respect between lawyers and the police because we will all be at work.
“Unfortunately, the police think that we have no right to be where they are searching and we have no right to ask for search warrants,” she said.
Justice Musakwa described Mtetwa as “a forceful, if not combative, personality” when it came to issues of defending her clients.
“If she was a commando, she would not take prisoners,” the judge said, drawing laughter from the packed courtroom.
Yesterday’s proceedings were attended by top government officials among them Finance minister Tendai Biti and Constitutional Affairs minister Eric Matinenga alongside African-American actress Alfre Woodard and American human rights activist Mary Kerry Kennedy.
Representing Mtetwa, Advocate Thabani Mpofu said provincial magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa misdirected herself when she remanded Mtetwa in custody on the basis that investigations were still in progress.
Mpofu said the State did not spell out how Mtetwa would interfere with police investigations and the nature of the investigations was not clear.
He said the claim that Mtetwa caused the disappearance of three computers from the suspects’ home was an afterthought, an averment Justice Musakwa concurred with.
“The State does not tell us how she caused the interference when she was handcuffed and bungled into a car, moreover her phone had been seized and she could not communicate,” Mpofu said.
Justice Musakwa said it was unwarranted and speculative to conclude that Mtetwa could have caused commotion in the presence of three male officers who could easily subdue her.
Mtetwa was arrested after she had gone to represent Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s communications office staffers Thabani Mpofu, Felix Matsinde, Mehluli Tshuma and Warship Dumba, who had been arrested over allegations of possessing materials that could be used to commit offences and for impersonating police.
Listen to Beatrice Mtetwa’s interview below:
