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A Zi
mbabwean magistrate's court yesterday placed four directors of
the independent newspaper the Daily News on remand, quashing a
defense bid to have the charges against them dropped.
The four are facing charges of contempt of court and publishing the
newspaper, a harsh critic of the government of President Robert
Mugabe, without a licence.
Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe ordered them each to pay bail of 50
000 Zimbabwe dollars and return to court on November 13.
The magistrate placed them on remand to allow himself time to study
a ruling Monday on a similar matter involving another of the
paper's directors, who was freed by the High Court in Zimbabwe's
second city Bulawayo on Monday.
Defence lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa had pointed to the Bulawayo court's
finding that no grounds existed to place Washington Sansole, who
had been arrested Saturday, on remand.
Mtetwa said the facts surrounding Sansole's case were similar, and
argued against applying the law selectively for the others.
"It will clearly be discriminatory. The constitution provides
against selective application of the law," Mtetwa said.
The four - Samuel Nkomo, Rachel Kupara, Brian Mutsau and Sturat
Mattinson - were locked up in police cells for two days and two
nights.
"Clearly the intention is to lock up the accused not because they
committed any offence but (because) someone has to be punished,"
Mtetwa said.
"There is nothing that justifies the accused having been placed in
custody for two nights," she said.
Elizabeth Mwatse-Simowah argued on behalf of the state that the
four acted in contempt when they proceeded to publish Saturday
against a Supreme Court ruling that they should get registered
first.
The charges follow the short-lived return to the newsstands on
Saturday of the Daily News, six weeks after it was shut down by the
authorities.
The reappearance of the popular newspaper followed a court ruling
Friday that a state-appointed media commission had wrongly denied
the paper a licence when it applied for one in September.
It ordered the paper to be licensed by November 30. –
Sapa-APF.
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