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Toddler detained in Zanu-PF office bombing probe

by Staff reporter
01 Oct 2013 at 17:35hrs | Views
A toddler was forced to endure two nights in police detention after the Zimbabwe Republic Police arrested her mother for allegedly masterminding the bombing of the Zanu-PF sub-office in Harare.

On Saturday, police detained Clifford Mbewe aged one year together with her 32 year-old mother, Spiwe Pambayi, after she was fingered by some informant for allegedly participating in the alleged bombing of the Zanu-PF offices in Harare's politically volatile high density suburb of Highfield.

According to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Mbewe and his mother endured two nights in police custody, first at Machipisa Police Station and later on at the notorious Harare Central Police Station, after she was arrested on Saturday.

Police alleged that the unidentified informant purportedly overheard the 32 year-old Pambayi, who is self-employed as a vendor, boasting that "fire-fire operation yatakaita nezuro yakabudirira," which the police translated to mean, "the fire-fire operation that we conducted yesterday (Friday night) was a success".

Pambayi, who denied the allegation when police detectives recorded a warned a cautioned statement from her in the company of her lawyer Charles Kwaramba of Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni Legal Practitioners was released on Monday after the detectives indicated that they would carry out further investigations.

The Zanu-PF offices were reportedly petrol-bombed during an attack, which reduced the offices together with an adjacent supermarket, Grocery World Supermarket to ashes.

The ruling party has already fingered supporters loyal to Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC-T party for masterminding the bombing of its party's offices.

MDC-T supporters have in previous years been arrested and tortured after being linked to committing a series of terror activities around the country such as bombing police stations and rail bridges. However, the MDC-T sympathisers have often times been cleared by the courts for any involvement or wrongdoing even though they would have been subjected to massive torture inflicted by Central Intelligence Organisation operatives seeking to extract some confessions for taking part in the alleged terror plots.

Source - radiovop
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