A ZIMBABWEAN judge has told state prosecutors that their case against prominent Zimbabwean human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, accused of trying to topple the government, will not be heard until she receives medical attention.
Judge Gloria Takunda directed police to comply with an earlier order that Ms Mukoko, whose lawyers allege she has been tortured while in police custody, be taken to hospital so the abuse claims can be investigated. The case was adjourned to today.
Ms Mukoko, the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, went missing on December 3rd last when a group of armed men abducted her outside her Harare home.
Police initially denied holding her and 31 other opposition supporters, but the state produced the peace activist and many of the missing in a district court just before Christmas.
During the hearing they were charged with trying to recruit people to travel to a Botswana military camp to receive training that would aid the overthrow of President Robert Mugabe's regime.
The original judge also ordered that each of the accused should receive medical attention, with which the police subsequently refused to comply, before moving the attempted coup plot hearing to the high court.
The anti-Mugabe Botswana government, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and those accused have denied any involvement in a coup. They claim the ruling regime is creating a scenario that could be used as an excuse to declare a state of emergency, as part of an intensified crackdown.
According to South Africa's Sunday Independent newspaper, Ms Mukoko, who is in solitary confinement at the notorious Chikurubi maximum security prison, told her lawyers she has been tortured and force-fed drugs by prison personnel.
The paper said her lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has called for a toxicology report to support the allegations she was being poisoned.
Court papers lodged by Ms Mtetwa quote Ms Mukoko as saying: "At first, I was assaulted under my feet with a rubber-like object while seated on the floor.
"I was asked to raise my feet on a table and the other people in the room started to assault me. They took a break and continued the beatings after a few hours."
Meanwhile, the state-run Herald newspaper said yesterday that Mr Mugabe intended to form a new government by the end of February, after a month-long holiday. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, in self-imposed exile in Botswana, has again said he will not join a government with Mr Mugabe because of the outstanding problems with the powersharing deal.