CCC’s Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri found not gu...

CCC’s Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri found not guilty

Zim Now Writer

Citizens Coalition for Change lawmaker Joana Mamombe and fellow party activist Cecilia Chimbiri heaved a sigh after the High Court found them not guilty of faking their 2020 abduction.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights confirmed on Tuesday that Mamombe and Chimbiri finally walked free afer three years of frequenting the courts. “Zim High Court has vindicated 2 victims of torture, Harare West MP Hon. @JoanaMamombe & @ceechimbiri2, one of opposition @CCCZimbabwe party leaders by acquitting them on charges of communicating falsehoods for allegedly faking their abduction & torture in 2020," said ZLHR.

The State accused the activists, who include the now exiled Netsai Marova, of publishing falsehoods.

The charges stem from a 2020 incident in which they claimed to have been seized from the hands of police officers in Harare by suspected State agents who drove them to a secluded place outside the capital to be subjected to horrendous acts of torture and sexual assault.

The three had staged an anti-government demonstration Warren Park, Harare, alongside other party activists.

After a public alarm was raised over their disappearance by friends and their party, they were later located in Bindura, some 70km outside Harare soiled and bruised.

They later spend some time in hospital, nursing the injuries before being dragged to court accused of lying about their abduction in order to soil the government’s image.