News / National
UK harbours Mugabe's senior henchman
26 Jan 2013 at 19:11hrs | Views
A UK newspaper has just revealed that the country is currently home to one of Robert Mugabe's notorious senior henchmen.
According to The Mirror the 36-year-old former CIO is believed to have worked closely with state torturers and even murderers.
He worked for the CIO for eight, rising to senior security aide and presidential bodyguard.
Human rights groups describe the CIO as "murderers" and "thugs", and one expert in the field the paper spoke to said that you don't survive for that long in the organisation without doing some very bad things to people.
But Britain is prevented from kicking him out of the country by the Human Rights Act, despite a three-year legal battle by the country's Home Office.
In the run-up to the 2000 election in Zimbabwe, in which Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF beat the rival Movement for Democratic Change party by a slim majority, an estimated 800 people were kidnapped or disappeared, 80 were killed and 90 more tortured.
Since his arrival on a student visa in 2003, Mr X has studied at two different universities in England.
He has also held down a job for a year as a manager at NHS Wales before leaving to become a business consultant.
Former opposition MP Job Sikhala, who has been tortured by CIO officers, said: "They are the most feared men in the whole country.
"They have no respect for human rights. This man is taking advantage of Britain's system."
The Daily Mirror knows the man's identity, but cannot reveal it because a court has granted him anonymity.
Mr X arrived in Britain via South Africa in September 2003 on a four-year student visa, after originally claiming in his visa application he was a junior marketing executive.
He only mentioned his murky past six years later when he applied for asylum in 2009, claiming his life was in danger from Zimbabwe's bloody regime.
The Home Office rejected his plea to stay, but a top judge granted him asylum, agreeing with Mr X he would be in danger if he went back to Zimbabwe.
But Dewa Mavhinga, of Human Rights Watch, said: "I have not known a single case where a former CIO member has returned to Zimababwe and been tortured and imprisoned.
"This would never happen. The CIO are extremely shady.
"You don't serve with them for eight years without having done some very bad things. They are thugs and murderers.
"I am astonished he was able to hide behind the Human Rights Act when he worked for an organisation with no respect whatsoever for human rights."
During the case, heard by the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber, Mr X proved he had acted as bodyguard to ministers, judges, and sometimes the president. His father and brothers were also all in the CIO.
But he claimed that, before fleeing, he was arrested, accused of treason and tortured by the CIO.
Mr X's step-sister said yesterday: "You don't mess with the CIO, they are very serious people. He would be killed if he went back."
After a three-year legal battle, Judge Peter Moulden ruled last year deporting Mr X would breach Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights – and place him at risk of torture and inhumane treatment.
The UK Border Agency said: "We are extremely disappointed. We did not believe this individual needed or deserved refuge in the UK."
A FORMER Zimbabwean opposition MP has claimed first-hand experience of torture methods employed by Mugabe's secret police.
Job Sikhala, 40, currently president of splinter political party Movement for Democratic Change 99, said officers from the feared Central ­Intelligence Organisation attached electrodes to his genitals, beat him with planks of wood and made him drink urine for threatening to ­question the dictatorship.
Speaking from Harare, he said: "The CIO are Mugabe's thugs, the shadowy arm of his political party who answer to nobody but him.
"They can do whatever they want and by whatever means.
"Their main job is to silence critics and make sure he remains in power by ­extortion, torture, kidnap and murder.
"I was tortured very severely by those thugs in 2003, during a time when there were many demonstrations on the streets.
"Armed police burst into my hotel room during the night and kidnapped me and took me to a police station.
"The CIO started accusing me of organising the ­demonstrations and spearheading the protest ­movement, which I was involved in. I was tortured for eight hours.
"They gave me electric shocks. They beat me on the soles of my feet with planks of wood and I was forced to drink toxins and urine."
He said he was ­eventually released but had to go through therapy after what they did.
According to The Mirror the 36-year-old former CIO is believed to have worked closely with state torturers and even murderers.
He worked for the CIO for eight, rising to senior security aide and presidential bodyguard.
Human rights groups describe the CIO as "murderers" and "thugs", and one expert in the field the paper spoke to said that you don't survive for that long in the organisation without doing some very bad things to people.
But Britain is prevented from kicking him out of the country by the Human Rights Act, despite a three-year legal battle by the country's Home Office.
In the run-up to the 2000 election in Zimbabwe, in which Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF beat the rival Movement for Democratic Change party by a slim majority, an estimated 800 people were kidnapped or disappeared, 80 were killed and 90 more tortured.
Since his arrival on a student visa in 2003, Mr X has studied at two different universities in England.
He has also held down a job for a year as a manager at NHS Wales before leaving to become a business consultant.
Former opposition MP Job Sikhala, who has been tortured by CIO officers, said: "They are the most feared men in the whole country.
"They have no respect for human rights. This man is taking advantage of Britain's system."
The Daily Mirror knows the man's identity, but cannot reveal it because a court has granted him anonymity.
Mr X arrived in Britain via South Africa in September 2003 on a four-year student visa, after originally claiming in his visa application he was a junior marketing executive.
He only mentioned his murky past six years later when he applied for asylum in 2009, claiming his life was in danger from Zimbabwe's bloody regime.
The Home Office rejected his plea to stay, but a top judge granted him asylum, agreeing with Mr X he would be in danger if he went back to Zimbabwe.
But Dewa Mavhinga, of Human Rights Watch, said: "I have not known a single case where a former CIO member has returned to Zimababwe and been tortured and imprisoned.
"This would never happen. The CIO are extremely shady.
"I am astonished he was able to hide behind the Human Rights Act when he worked for an organisation with no respect whatsoever for human rights."
During the case, heard by the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber, Mr X proved he had acted as bodyguard to ministers, judges, and sometimes the president. His father and brothers were also all in the CIO.
But he claimed that, before fleeing, he was arrested, accused of treason and tortured by the CIO.
Mr X's step-sister said yesterday: "You don't mess with the CIO, they are very serious people. He would be killed if he went back."
After a three-year legal battle, Judge Peter Moulden ruled last year deporting Mr X would breach Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights – and place him at risk of torture and inhumane treatment.
The UK Border Agency said: "We are extremely disappointed. We did not believe this individual needed or deserved refuge in the UK."
A FORMER Zimbabwean opposition MP has claimed first-hand experience of torture methods employed by Mugabe's secret police.
Job Sikhala, 40, currently president of splinter political party Movement for Democratic Change 99, said officers from the feared Central ­Intelligence Organisation attached electrodes to his genitals, beat him with planks of wood and made him drink urine for threatening to ­question the dictatorship.
Speaking from Harare, he said: "The CIO are Mugabe's thugs, the shadowy arm of his political party who answer to nobody but him.
"They can do whatever they want and by whatever means.
"Their main job is to silence critics and make sure he remains in power by ­extortion, torture, kidnap and murder.
"I was tortured very severely by those thugs in 2003, during a time when there were many demonstrations on the streets.
"Armed police burst into my hotel room during the night and kidnapped me and took me to a police station.
"The CIO started accusing me of organising the ­demonstrations and spearheading the protest ­movement, which I was involved in. I was tortured for eight hours.
"They gave me electric shocks. They beat me on the soles of my feet with planks of wood and I was forced to drink toxins and urine."
He said he was ­eventually released but had to go through therapy after what they did.
Source - Mirror
