LAWYERS representing six men who were arrested in 2007 for plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe’s government this week filed an urgent High Court application seeking the release of two of the accused from Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on medical grounds.
Emmanuel Marara and Nyasha Zivuku, according to the chamber application filed by their lawyer Charles Warara, were “very ill” and one of the accused needed urgent medical help.
In the application, Warara said: “I had been advised that Emmanuel Marara and Nyasha Zivuku had fallen ill and that Emmanuel’s condition was very bad that he needed urgent attention.”
Warara said Marara was diabetic and was not getting any medical attention from the prison.
“I met the accused and on assessing his condition I was convinced that he was in a bad state. He explained to me that he has been coughing for the past two weeks spitting blood and that he has lost weight.”
Warara said when he enquired from the prison authorities if his client had been afforded any medication, he was informed that there no medical attention given to him and that there was no medication at all at the jail and this left him exposed and without help.
“The accused’s right to be afforded medical attention or at least to be examined by a doctor has not been afforded him and it is the case with Nyasha Zivuku who has been in pain for months following injuries he sustained during the time he was arrested and tortured,” Warara said. “The accused need urgent medical attention and unless they are urgently released to a private hospital or to a properly equipped government hospital they will die of curable ailments.”
According to the application, the six accused have been in prison for almost two years and they have not been medically examined to establish the state of their health.
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Warara said he had received reports that there have been several deaths of inmates at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison since the detention of his clients. Most of the deaths were a result of curable diseases such as tuberculosis. His clients, the lawyer said, were suspected to have contracted tuberculosis, but were yet to be tested. – Staff Writer.
