Zimbabwe police said today they had arrested two reporters from the country's privately owned daily newspaper for allegedly witnessing the torture of a man by opposition supporters.
Police said the man was forced by members of the opposition Movement For Democratic Change (MDC) into implicating the national spy agency in the recent murder of a war veterans' leader.
Daily Newsreporter Mr Mduduzi Mathuthu and photographer Mr Grey Chitiga were in police custody today after their arrest yesterday in Bulawayo, a colleague said.
The state-owned Heraldnewspaper reported today the two were witnesses to the assault of a man in Bulawayo by MDC supporters who made him confess that the death of war veteran Mr Cain Nkala was the work of Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation.
The attackers called the Daily Newsreporter Mr Mathuthu who brought Mr Chitiga to film the proceedings, the Heraldsaid.
But the Daily Newssaid the reporters had been arrested to prevent them from publishing an interview with an MDC activist it said claimed to know the full details of Mr Nkala's murder.
President Robert Mugabe's government has accused the MDC of involvement in Mr Nkala's death, a charge the opposition denies.
The MDC says the ruling party is using the death as an excuse to crack down on the opposition ahead of next year's presidential vote.