(MISA/IFEX) – On 2 May 2000, Associated Press photographer Obed Zilwa was cleared of all charges and allowed to leave Zimbabwe. Zilwa was released from detention on Saturday 29 April after spending just over forty-eight hours in jail. He was released into the custody of his lawyer, and had his passport and plane ticket confiscated. […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 2 May 2000, Associated Press photographer Obed Zilwa was cleared of all charges and allowed to leave Zimbabwe.
Zilwa was released from detention on Saturday 29 April after spending just over forty-eight hours in jail. He was released into the custody of his lawyer, and had his passport and plane ticket confiscated. He was told to report to the attorney general’s office on Tuesday 2 May (Monday being a public holiday).
When he arrived at the attorney general’s office, officials said they had no intention of prosecuting him. He was given back his passport and told he could leave the country. Zilwa arrived in South Africa, where he is from, a few hours after receiving his documentation.
Background Information
Zilwa was arrested by police on 26 April at Harare International Airport as he was about to leave the country. A police spokesperson said Zilwa had been arrested because he was suspected of having driven the car that was seen speeding off before the bomb blast at Trustee House, which houses the offices of the “Daily News”. Police claimed he matched eyewitness descriptions of an alleged suspect seen at the scene of the blast. MISA sources reported that Zilwa apparently was at the scene at the time of the blast and then left to fetch his equipment at a nearby hotel and returned immediately. On 28 April it was reported that Zilwa had been charged under Section 38 (b) (ii) of Zimbabwe’s Law and Order Maintenance Act (LOMA).
On 22 April, a home-made bomb exploded on the ground floor of Trustee House. The bomb went off in an art gallery situated directly below the office of the paper’s editor-in-chief, Geoff Nyarota. No one was injured in the blast but it partially destroyed the gallery and the distribution offices of the “Daily News”. The newspaper’s offices were closed at the time.
