| Political Prisoners in Zimbabwe |
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| Whilst under arrest in January 1988, their wives and other relatives were also arrested, including Agent Woods' two daughters aged 9 and 4 years. Agent Smith's pregnant wife gave birth to their daughter prematurely while being tortured with a pair of pliers by CIO (secret police) agents. The family members were detained by Zimbabwean secret police and their release was conditional on the agents' admission to involvement in the car bombing. |
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| These men were denied proper access to their lawyers until some 17 days after their arrest. By the time they were eventually allowed to discuss their plight with their attorneys they had all made implicating statements to the secret police. When they were eventually allowed access to their lawyers, the investigation and interrogation was complete.
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| These men were taken before a judicial officer on the 12th February 1988, 26 days after their arrest.1 |
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| They were convicted solely on admissions made to Zimbabwe's Secret Police in "warned and cautioned" statements (alleged to have been made "freely and voluntarily") implicating involvement in "actions against the ANC" in Zimbabwe. |
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| These men had made statements to the secret police and signed them as having been freely made because of terrifying threats against their loved ones who were being held incommunicado.2 |
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| These men were convicted, the trail judge ruling that the statements had been made freely and voluntarily. |
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| On 18th November 1988, Agents Woods, Smith and Conjwayo were sentenced to death for the car bomb attack in Bulawayo. Agents Woods, Smith and Bawden were also sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for the car bombing of another ANC facility in Harare. On 28th October 1993, on appeal, Agents Woods, Smith and Conjwayo had their death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, and Bawden’s 40 years imprisonment to 25 years imprisonment. |
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1. This is in direct conflict with their human rights under article 9(3) of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights , which is an instrument to the International Bill of Human Rights. |
| 2. This action by the secret police was in direct conflict with the fundamental right granted by Section 13(3) of the constitution of Zimbabwe, "To obtain and instruct without delay a legal representative of his choice and hold communication with him". It was also in direct conflict of principle 21 of the 1989 UN Body of Principles for the protection of all persons under any form of detention or imprisonment - which prohibits taking advantage of a situation by the authorities and subjecting the detained person to threats that cause him to incriminate himself. |
