As this week marked one month since pro-democracy activist Itai Dzamara was abducted by suspected state security agents, new details have emerged pointing to the government’s Central Intelligence Organisation.
Email evidence in possession of this journo shows an intelligence agent writing to a colleague on the day Dzamara was taken from his Glen View surbub, saying that “he has become a security threat.”
In the same email the agent, (Name Supplied), then complains that Dzamara had been allegedly handed $200,000 by western donors.
“How can one person receive $200,000 against $180,000 for the whole country’s agriculture what is that?,” the agent, a man, states.
He then follows at the footer saying that Dzamara would be released after interrogation.
The western donor’s name is not declared in the email.
The evidence once accepted by the courts, is now set to buttress the legal challenge against the government.
Dzamara’s lawyers have voiced that they are concerned by the silence of the government, while his colleagues say they fear for their lives and threatened to sue the CIO for contempt of court.
ZRP cops say Dzamara’s wife last saw her husband when five men forced him into a car before driving off.
Lizwe Jamela is with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, an organization which sought an order to compel state agents to locate the anti-Mugabe activist. He explains how it has been since Dzamara disappeared.
“From lawyer’s perspective, it is so sad to work on a case where you do not actually talk to your client. Where he vanishes in the air. Nothing is really leading to where they [Dzamara] are. In as much as there are statements by the authorities that they are investigating, so far we have not had any updates,” said Jamela.
The statements the lawyer mentioned is a reference to a denial by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa that Harare had an issue with the missing activist.
“We are a democratic society and anybody in this country who commits a crime must account for the crime that is committed. That is why we have institutions like the Zimbabwe Republic Police to deal with this. I can assure the House that it [Dzamara’s abduction] is a barbaric act and we want those responsible to come to book,” said Mnangagwa.
The accusations stemmed from the fact that Dzamara had been calling for President Robert Mugabe’s resignation. Dzamara along with other activists accused Mugabe of ruining once-prosperous Zimbabwe and of disregarding human rights. (ZimEye/ Additional Reporting VOA)