Court orders Zimbabwe detainees released or charged: lawyer

A court in Zimbabwe has ordered the release of more than 200 jailed opposition activists if police failed to press charges against them amid fears over their condition, a lawyer said on Monday.

“We got an order from the High Court that they be released immediately. If not, they should be charged and be brought to court by 1600 hours (1400 GMT),” Alec Muchadehama, one of the lawyers for the detainees, told AFP.

The activists were rounded up by armed riot police at the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the capital Harare on Friday in a raid to find suspects in a series of arson attacks.

Muchadehama said the court order also allowed for lawyers to have access to the activists, who were being held at various police stations across the capital, and gave the detainees the right to seek medical attention.

Police said they detained 215 people when they raided the MDC offices.

But the MDC said at least 245 who had sought shelter from retributive attacks at the hands of pro-government militias had been rounded up and 30 of them, including young mothers and children, were later released.

Although presidential election results are yet to be officially announced, the MDC says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai was the outright winner, while ZANU-PF says there was no clear winner and should be a run-off.