Immigration Dept foil release of BBC presenter

The arrested BBC classical musical presenter, Petroc Trelawny, was not released as planned Tuesday after immigration officials held on to his travel documents arguing they were still consulting with their superiors and the Attorney General's office.

Human rights lawyers were on Tuesday frantically working on filing an urgent chamber application in the High Court to force the release of the travel documents.

The Attorney General on Monday refused to prosecute the presenter arrested last week in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, for working without a work permit. This was after the music presenter's lawyers, Munyaradzi Nzarayapenga of Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners Legal Practitioners, who is a member lawyer of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and Nosimilo Chanayiwa of ZLHR convinced the AG's Office that he had not violated any of the country's laws.

Trelawny had been hospitalised at the UBH hospital in Bulawayo after slipping in the cells and injuring his arm.