Case History: Beatrice Mtetwa
On 26 November 2013, human rights lawyer Ms Beatrice Mtetwa was acquitted of charge of “obstructing justice”. The charge against her relates to allegations that she used insulting language towards police officers and took photographs of them as they performed a search in March 2013. Beatrice Mtetwa was arrested in the context of an ongoing clampdown on human rights defenders and opposition figures ahead of elections due to be held on 31 July 2013.
Beatrice Mtetwa is a human rights lawyer and a member of Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). In her role as a lawyer, she has represented many human rights defenders and opposition figures. By doing so she has often become a target for intimidation and harassment herself.
On 26 November 2013, human rights lawyer Ms Beatrice Mtetwa was acquitted of charge of “obstructing justice”. The charge against her relates to allegations that she used insulting language towards police officers and took photographs of them as they performed a search in March of this year.
Beatrice Mtetwa was arrested in the context of an ongoing clampdown on human rights defenders and opposition figures ahead of elections due to be held on 31 July 2013. Upon her arrest, Beatrice Mtetwa was imprisoned for eight nights and police officers did not execute a judge's order to release her. At an earlier hearing on 10 June 2013, the human rights defender entered a plea of “not guilty”.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place during a search of an office belonging to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as part of an investigation into four of his aides, whose legal representative was Beatrice Mtetwa. The prosecution alleges that she insulted and shouted at the police officers as they carried out a search, calling them “imbwa dzaMugabe” (Mugabe’s dogs).
Mr Harrison Nkomo, the lawyer representing Beatrice Mtetwa, argued that the police officers in question were acting unlawfully as they had failed to provide a search warrant and that as “a non-speaker of the Shona language, she could not have uttered the words attributed to her in Shona”. On 26 November 2013, a Harare magistrate ruled that there was "no evidence" for the charges against Beatrice Mtetwa and ordered her release. The court heard that Beatrice Mtetwa had shouted “at the top of her voice” that the police's actions were “unconstitutional, illegal and unlawful”. The court found that this language did not amount to “obstructing justice”.
Beatrice Mtetwa believes her arrest was meant to “completely destabilise [her] practice” and prevent her from working during the disputed July elections. Human rights groups in Zimbabwe claim that such charges and trials are brought by the authorities to impede campaigns opposing President Robert Mugabe.
Faced with a charge of “obstructing justice”, the trial against human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has been postponed until 29 June 2013. The charge against her relates to allegations that she used insulting language towards police officers as they performed a search in March of this year.
At a earlier hearing on 10 June 2013 the human rights defender entered a plea of “not guilty”.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place during a search of an office belonging to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as part of a case against 4 aides represented by Beatrice Mtetwa. The prosecution allege that she insulted and shouted at the police officers carrying out this search and called them imbwa dzaMugabe (Mugabe’s dogs).
Harrison Nkomo, the lawyer representing Beatrice Mtetwa, read out a defence statement at the hearing arguing that the police officers in question were acting unlawfully as they had failed to provide a search warrant and that as “a non-speaker of the Shona language, she could not have uttered the words attributed to her in Shona”.
