UN criticises arrest of judge in Zimbabwe
The top UN official on judicial independence has criticised the arrest and detention of a High Court judge in Zimbabwe as “intimidation of the gravest kind”.
UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Param Cumaraswami said criminal allegations against Judge Benjamin Paradza risked dividing the nation’s judges over their perceived loyalties as compliant or independent court officers.
Judge Paradza was arrested from his chambers on Monday and held overnight in a police cell until a magistrate ordered his release on bail. He is to appear in the magistrate’s court on March 21 to face charges of attempting to obstruct the course of justice and corruption.
“While judges are not above the law, subjecting them to arrest and detention in such humiliating circumstance is tantamount to intimidation of the gravest kind. This leaves a chilling effect on the independence of the judiciary,” Mr Cumaraswami said in a statement.
State prosecutors alleged Judge Paradza last month telephoned fellow judges in the second city of Bulawayo to ask them to release the passport of a business partner accused of murder.
Principle witnesses against Judge Paradza would be fellow judges, Mr Cumaraswami said.
“This is pitting of judge against judge and setting the members of the judiciary on a collision course between what will be seen as the independents and the compliants,” he said.
Judge Paradza, 45, the first sitting judge to be arrested, has said in a sworn statement to the police that before his arrest he was warned not to embarrass the government with his court rulings. He has denied the allegations against him.
On January 12, the judge ordered the release of Mayor Elias Mudzuri, head of the opposition-controlled Harare municipal council who was detained on allegations he held an illegal political meeting in western Harare, the capital.
The judge granted a release order on grounds the mayor was holding a legitimate meeting with city tax payers to hear their grievances on the council’s services and was not in breach of the nation’s sweeping security laws.
Police ignored that order and kept the mayor in custody for two days.
In August, Judge Paradza struck down government eviction notices affecting 54 white farm owners on grounds they were not served correctly under land nationalisation laws.
He had also ordered the government to issue a passport to a veteran human rights activist after she was stripped of her Zimbabwean citizenship.
Mr Curamaswami said he had learnt that soon after the judge’s ruling to free the mayor he was “intimidated and threatened with reprisal action by police intelligence officers”.
“This latest development is but one in a series of institutional and personal attacks on the judiciary and its independent judges over the past two years,” he said.
The government’s actions to intimidate judges already forced several to resign and left Zimbabwe’s rule of law ”in tatters”.
Zimbabwe has been wracked by political and economic turmoil since the government began a programme to seize white-owned farms in 2000.
The government has moved to crack down on the judiciary, human rights groups and the media. It has been accused of packing the courts with judges loyal to President Robert Mugabe, currently in Paris for a Franco-African summit.
