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Court defers decision on bail for jailed farmers

    JOHANNESBURG

    The Zimbabwe High Court has postponed to Friday a decision on a bail application for 21 imprisoned white commercial farmers who face public violence charges, news reports said on Thursday. Judge Rita Makarau was quoted telling the court on Thursday that she needed time to assess submissions made by the farmers’ lawyer.

    The farmers were arrested last week after they clashed with black occupiers on a farm in Chinhoyi, 100 km northwest of Harare. The farmers appealed to the High Court after a Chinhoyi magistrate court last week denied them bail on grounds that they could abscond or interfere with witnesses, some of whom are believed to be farm workers.

    Their lawyer Firoz Girach was quoted as saying that said there was no chance of the 21 absconding because they owned property worth millions of Zimbabwe dollars and had spent years, in some cases decades, farming here. State prosecutor Ben Chidenga was quoted as saying that the farmers’ release was likely to spark further violence in the farming region, which has seen retaliatory looting of white farms in the area over the past week.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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