The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has demanded the finalization of a case involving 29 Glenview residents who have now spent 15 months in detention on charges of allegedly murdering a police officer.
ZimRights said in a statement Tuesday there is no justification for the continued deprivation of their right to freedom saying it is “distressing and inhuman to keep the individuals incarcerated for almost two years without defining their fate."
The group urged the authorities to now define the fate of the accused persons without further delay to ensure restoration of liberties to those who are innocent.
Police officer Petros Mutedza was killed in May last year resulting in the arrests of the 29 residents, most of them members of the Movement for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Defense lawyers have said some of the detainees were assaulted while in police custody and that their ordeal in jail amounted to torture.
Their trial was postponed indefinitely by the courts because of the deteriorating health of one of the accused persons.