A Zimbabwean court on Friday ordered the release of Alec Muchadehama, the rights lawyer representing the 18 activists accused of plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe's regime, on bail.
A judge in Harare Magistrates' Court ordered that Muchadehama be freed on bail of 100 dollars, a day after he was arrested on charges of improperly arranging bail for three of his clients released earlier in the week.
The three clients of Muchadehama who were released on bail earlier in the week were freelance journalist Andrison Manyere, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's former aide Ghandi Mudzingwa, and Chris Dhlamini, the head of security in Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party.
They were part of an eighteen-member group, who were arrested in December on charges of attempting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe's government. The activists, who were held in prison for two months, say that they were tortured into making false confessions by the country's police officials.
The other fifteen activists were released on bail last Wednesday until their trial begins in July, and included Zimbabwean human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and several members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party. Their release came just a day after they were re-arrested following their release from prison on bail two months ago.
Soon after their re-arrest last Tuesday, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party, which had recently joined a power-sharing government with President Mugabe's Zanu PF party in an effort to pull back Zimbabwe from the verge of economic collapse, said in a statement that the move could threaten the future of the unity government.
MDC said that their re-arrest "threatens not only the life and health of the inclusive government, but its longevity and durability," adding that the ruling "threatens the goodwill" Zimbabwe has received recently from the international community over the formation of the unity government in the impoverished African country.
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