{"id":447905,"date":"2011-06-26T15:39:21","date_gmt":"2011-06-26T15:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/26\/zimbabwe-tsvangirai-ally-released-after-court-order\/"},"modified":"2011-06-26T15:39:21","modified_gmt":"2011-06-26T15:39:21","slug":"zimbabwe-tsvangirai-ally-released-after-court-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/26\/zimbabwe-tsvangirai-ally-released-after-court-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Ally Released After Court Order"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"73.9071017274\">\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rnw.nl\/africa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/rnw180.png\" alt=\"Radio Netherlands Worldwide (Hilversum)\" title=\"Visit Radio Netherlands Worldwide (Hilversum)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nkosana Dlamini<\/p>\n<p>26 June 2011<\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>Jameson Timba, cabinet minister in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai&#8217;s co-governing Movement for Democratic Change, was freed from police custody on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>This is after Zimbabwe&#8217;s High Court ordered his &#8220;immediate&#8221; release from police custody, where he had spent two nights on charges of calling State President Robert Mugabe a liar.<\/p>\n<p>Presiding judge Joseph Musakwa also pronounced his arrest and detention as a violation of his basic rights after police formally informed his about his offence minutes after he appeared in court.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is no justifiable ground for his continued release. It is ordered that the first applicant (Timba) be released immediately,&#8221; said Justice Musakwa.<\/p>\n<p>Timba, Minister of State in The Prime Minister&#8217;s office, looked pale as he appeared in court dressed all in black.<\/p>\n<p>The chain smoking minister, a close ally to Zimbabwe&#8217;s Premier, was arrested late noon last Friday for &#8220;undermining the authority of State President Robert Mugabe&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>This is after he had allegedly told a South African newspaper that Mugabe had misinformed the nation by claiming regional leaders had stifled his coalition partners&#8217; attempts to force through a raft changes to the country&#8217;s political and electoral system to plug off loopholes that had been exploited to the advantage of the incumbent.<\/p>\n<p>He denies the charges, which his party describe as &#8220;pure harrassment&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>During his detention, police transferred him to three different stations in what his lawyers alleged to an attempt to deny them access to him.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, drama followed his exit from the court building on Sunday after his release was ordered.<\/p>\n<p>Detectives from Zimbabwe&#8217;s dreaded Law and Order barred his release insisting they take him back to Harare Central police to engage in the &#8220;proper release procedure&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers and the police argued for over 25 minutes on the interpretation of the word &#8216;immediate&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The judge ordered his immediate release, if you take him back with you, this would be a violation of the order,&#8221; argued defence attorney Thabani Mpofu as detectives barred the minister from entering his waiting Mercedes Benz.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a person facing criminal charges. He cannot just be released like a bird from a cage,&#8221; one of the detectives argued back.<\/p>\n<p>Detectives called for &#8220;reinforcements&#8221; from Harare central police after they felt overwhelmed by the presence of over a dozen activists from Tsvangirai&#8217;s party who had attended the Sunday afternoon urgent court hearing in solidarity with one of the party&#8217;s most senior officials.<\/p>\n<p>Timba was later taken to the police station after half a dozen uniformed police officers were dispatched to the court building to escort on a police Defender truck.<\/p>\n<p>He was eventually set free an hour later after a statement was taken from him while at the police station.<\/p>\n<p>State Attorney Christopher Mutangadura said they were preparing summons for the commencement of Timba&#8217;s trial.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is indeed a case that he should answer,&#8221; said Mutangadura, &#8220;We are going to advise him on his trial.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tsvangirai and his party have accused the country&#8217;s partisan security forces of waging a campaign of terror against them to cow voters into supporting for Mugabe whose popularity is wanning by the day.<\/p>\n<p>Tsvangirai is agitating for the replacement of the top brass from the army, police and the country&#8217;s secret service.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<fieldset>\n<legend align=\"center\"><strong>More News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<p>AllAfrica &#8211; All the Time<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read More:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/201106260003.html\" title=\"Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Ally Released After Court Order\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Ally Released After Court Order<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Nkosana Dlamini 26 June 2011 Jameson Timba, cabinet minister in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai&#8217;s co-governing Movement for Democratic Change, was freed from police custody on Sunday afternoon. This is after Zimbabwe&#8217;s High Court ordered his &#8220;immediate&#8221; release from police custody, where he had spent two nights on charges of calling State President Robert Mugabe a liar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-447905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Ally Released After Court Order - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/26\/zimbabwe-tsvangirai-ally-released-after-court-order\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Ally Released After Court Order - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Nkosana Dlamini 26 June 2011 Jameson Timba, cabinet minister in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai&#039;s co-governing Movement for Democratic Change, was freed from police custody on Sunday afternoon. 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