The High Court has granted bail to Movement for Democratic Change Alliance’s Harare North lawmaker, Joanna Mamombe, and part youth leader, Cecilia Chimbiri, who were in remand prison for two months, facing charges of insulting police and breaking COVID-19 lockdown regulations.
In a tweet, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said Justice Webster Chinamora granted the two ZWL$10,000 each. They were also ordered to report to the nearest police station twice a week, live at their present addresses and not to interfere with state witnesses.
The state, which initially opposed bail, relented and agreed that a Harare magistrate misdirected himself when he denied the two bail.
Mamombe and Chimbiri are facing charges of faking their abductions last year and violating national lockdown regulations by staging an unsanctioned public protest.
The two and their colleague, Netsai Marova, claimed that they were abducted a couple of months ago by suspected state security agents, tortured and then dumped hundreds of kilometers outside Harare.