Former Zimbabwe judge freed on bail
A retired Zimbabwe High Court judge accused of corruption was freed on bail today by a magistrate who heard he was denied food, medication and access to lawyers and his family on the first day of custody.
Feargus Blackie, who was arrested before dawn on Friday, appeared in Harare magistrate’s court and faced charges of obstructing justice and corruption .
The charges stem from a judgment he gave before he left the High Court bench in July.
Blackie’s arrest was seen as part of a continuing crackdown against judges, reporters and activists deemed critical of President Robert Mugabe’s increasingly authoritarian rule.
The government has accused white judges, including Blackie, of bias against it.
One white judge remains among about 30 judges. Zimbabwe has hundreds of mostly black magistrates.
Seven of the country’s 30 senior judges have quit or retired in just over a year, some after being threatened and denied protection by the government. All were considered independent thinkers who had come under pressure from the government and ruling party militants to toe the party line.
Blackie, a 65-year-old with a heart condition, spent the weekend in freezing conditions in a dirty jail in an impoverished Harare township, his lawyer said.
Firoz Girach said he received no food, cardiovascular medication or warm clothing on the first day after being arrested before. His lawyers and wife and son were denied access to him until Saturday, when he was brought to a special court hearing in an open truck manacled in handcuffs.
His treatment in custody was seen as an attempt to humiliate Blackie, a respected lawyer and judge for two decades.
Arrests in Zimbabwe are often carried out on Fridays to force suspects to spend the weekend in overcrowded police cells before a court hearing can be held.
State media have said Blackie was being investigated on suspicion that he was racially biased when he overturned a one year jail sentence imposed on a white woman convicted of theft.
His lawyers said Sunday Blackie was not guilty of bias, but there had been a clerical mix-up in the case.
