Zimbabwe: Union Leaders Released

southern africa | repression / prisoners | non-anarchist press Sunday November 15, 2009 21:00 by AFP - News24.com

Harare - Five trade union leaders arrested under Zimbabwe's repressive security laws have been released after spending four nights in jail, an official said on Friday.

The five, including the president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Lovemore Matombo, were arrested on Sunday on charges of holding a meeting without police authorisation.

They were released late on Thursday from their cells in the resort town of Victoria Falls, after a court tossed out the charges, the group said in a statement.

"It is heartbreaking that innocent people had to spend four nights in filthy police cells and only freed after the intervention of the courts," ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe said in a statement.

"The ZCTU, however welcomes the court's ruling that the police had no business disrupting the ZCTU meeting and arresting innocent trade unionists."

Chibebe said the Public Order and Security Act, used to detain the five, "does not cover trade unions but the police continue to disrupt trade union activities."

"The police should be undoubtedly ashamed of their actions," he added.

The arrests drew condemnation from union movements around the continent, and the European Union on Thursday issued a statement calling for their release.