Jestina Mukoko sues Mutasa and state security agents over abduction and torture

On  Monday 27 March, High Court Judge Justice Nyaradzo Munangati-Manongwa will hear from former State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa’s who is objecting to a lawsuit filed against him by Human rights activist Jestina Mukoko.  Mutasa, Brigadier General Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi and Chief Superintendent Peter Magwenzi are being sued in their personal capacities for abducting and torturing Jestina Mukoko in 2008.

However, the trio is arguing that they were acting in official capacity and should be sued as such. Mukoko’s lawyer and director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Beatrice Mutetwa has opposed the application arguing that no one is employed in his or her official capacity to commit heinous crimes such as torture.

Mukoko was abducted from her Norton home and held incommunicado for almost one month in December 2008. In 2009, she filed a $220 000 lawsuit against four cabinet ministers including Mutasa, who at the time of her abduction served as State Security, Lands and Land Reform Minister for damages she suffered after she was abducted and held incommunicado and tortured for three weeks at various locations by state security agents.

Mutasa is one of the leaders of Zimbabwe People First Party after he was expelled from President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party in 2015.

More: Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights

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