AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA
PRESS RELEASE
Sept. 28, 2009

Amnesty International Welcomes Favorable Zimbabwe Court Ruling in Case of Noted Human Rights Activist Jestina Mukoko

Human Rights Organization Urges Government to Drop All Charges Against Human Rights and Political Activists

(New York) -- Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan made the following comments on Monday following the decision by the Zimbabwe Supreme Court to issue a permanent stay of the criminal proceedings against prominent human rights activist Jestina Mukoko:
“This is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe and we welcome it," said Khan, who met with Mukoko in Zimbabwe this past June while the organization mobilized to demand that the charges against her were dropped.
"The government must drop all the charges against human rights and political activists who were targeted for exercising their rights to freedom of association and expression,” said Khan.

Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), was facing criminal proceedings on charges of recruiting individuals for training as insurgents or saboteurs. The charges are widely believed to be trumped up by the previous government to silence perceived political opponents.

“It is high time the Zimbabwean government demonstrates its commitment to the rule of law and human rights by ending the abuse of state institutions in pursuit of a partisan agenda," said Khan. "Those responsible should be investigated and held accountable.”
The charges against Mukoko followed her abduction by state security agents from her home on December 3, 2008. She was detained incommunicado and was tortured by her abductors together with 23 other human rights and political activists.

Amnesty International immediately mobilized its worldwide network of activists when Jestina initially disappeared, calling for her safe and expedient return. Following her release to a police station in late December 2008 and subsequent incarceration, Amnesty International activists continued to demand that the Zimbabwe government drop all charges against Mukoko and all those subject to abusive charges intended to silence political dissent and demands for human rights.
“I am so relieved. For the first time from the 3rd of December [2008] my life has become normal [again],” Mukoko told Amnesty International after the court ruling.

Since her release from custody on bail in March 2009, after spending three months in custody, Mukoko has been reporting at the local police station in Norton every Friday. She had to surrender her passport as part of her bail conditions.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and woArks to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

Please visit www.amnestyusa.org for more information.

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