Rogue police officers perpetrating unlawful arrests, torture put on notice

LAW enforcement agents effecting unlawful arrests, detention and brutality against innocent civilians must face the wrath of the law in their individual capacities and be liable for victims’ compensation, a top human rights official has said.

Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) chairperson, Jessie Majome said rogue elements within the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) or other law enforcement agencies must be reminded that the Constitution protects citizens from arbitrary arrests, harassment, torture and degrading treatment, among other violations.

“Law enforcement agents should remember that the Constitution is very emphatic on the rights of arrested and detained persons. It absolutely prohibits having people arrested for no reason and being mistreated,” said Majome.

Her utterances come in the wake of a clampdown on political activists and civil society representatives ahead of the just-ended Southern African Development Community (SADC) in pre-emptive arrests to thwart planned protests against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s contested incumbency.

In one particular case, 79 Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activists, including Tambudzai Makororo, were arrested by anti-riot police who stormed Senator Jameson Timba’s Avondale house in Harare on June 16. Makororo was brutalized and had surgery done to repair a left leg fractured during the violent raid.

The ZHRC chairperson said the country’s laws, as enshrined in section 50 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, provide for the protection of the rights of arrested and detained persons.

“When people are arrested, including those facing murder, must be arrested in a manner that promotes their rights…there must be no torture, no cruel and degrading treatment…

“Section 50 of the Constitution is the longest provision in our Bill of Rights, it spells out in great detail each and every one of the rights, such as the right to dignity, security of the person, protection from torture, right to a lawyer if you can afford one, to be told why you were arrested, the offence, right to food and sanitation, right to bail unless there are compelling reasons to deny it like public safety.

“It ends by saying if the arrest has been done in a manner that doesn’t fulfil all those rights, then that arrest is unlawful.

“Law enforcement officers who take the risk of arresting people without reasonable basis at law ultimately will have their efforts go to waste because the courts are going to set the people free if they realise that those rights were violated.”

Majome warned police officers to exercise restraint when enforcing the law in order to guard against infringing on citizens’ civil liberties, which might end up having them sued for compensation arising from injuries or other infringements.

“To the law enforcement officials themselves, the Constitution is emphatic to the extent that it says if those rights are violated, the law enforcement official who has arrested that person they, personally, will be held liable.

“People concerned, who were either unlawfully arrested, beaten up or tortured, can sue the officer, be it a Constable or Inspector, at a personal level. It will come to their houses and their pockets.

“It is something that we need to make members of the public aware of, that individual officers can be sued, so that these violations don’t continue happening,” said the ZHRC chairperson.

She reiterated that police officers and other agents of government arms must be conscientised on human rights issues.