Court orders arrest of ‘tortured’ Zimbabwe MP

A court in Zimbabwe has issued an arrest warrant for opposition MP, Joana Mamombe, after she failed to attend trial on Monday to face accusations of faking her abduction in May, state-owned Herald newspaper reports.

The MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party is being jointly charged with two other female party members, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova.

They were detained in May for attending a protest during lockdown. They allege state agents then abducted them from the police, beat and sexually assaulted them and forced them to drink each other’s urine.

But the authorities insist the women made up the story to divert attention from the fact that they broke lockdown rules by attending a protest.

On Tuesday, their lawyer told a magistrate in the capital, Harare, that the MP was admitted at a health centre in the city, the newspaper reports.

He is quoted as saying his client was suffering from anxiety problems and could not attend court.