EXPERT EXPRESSES GRAVE CONCERN OVER ARREST OF ANOTHER JUDGE IN ZIMBABWE

19 February 2003




Dato' Param Cumaraswamy, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the independence of judges and lawyers, today expressed grave concern over the arrest and detention of another judge in Zimbabwe.
According to the Special Rapporteur, the judge, Justice Benjamin Paradza, charged with an alleged obstruction of justice, was arrested in his chambers and detained overnight on 17 February 2003. He was then brought before a court on the morning of 18 February 2003 and released on bail. Justice Paradza had previously handed down decisions that were unpalatable to the Zimbabwean Government. In January 2003, soon after Justice Paradza delivered his judgment on the Harare Mayor Elias Mudzuri case, ordering his release, he was intimidated and threatened with reprisal by police intelligence officers. The Government is reported to have alleged that Justice Paradza had attempted to influence a fellow judge in a case involving an application for the release of a passport of an accused in a murder trial.
Last September 2002, retired Judge Blackie was arrested and detained in humiliating circumstances and subsequently charged with obstruction of justice. Prior to his retirement, Judge Blackie had convicted and sentenced the country's Minister of Justice to three months imprisonment for contempt of court. The Government had alleged that Judge Blackie had delivered a judgment quashing an appeal of a jail term imposed on a white woman without concurring with the other judge who sat on the appeal with him. In a press release of 24 September, Mr. Cumaraswamy had expressed his outrage over that arrest, detention and charge.
"What is common and very conspicuous about the alleged charges against Justice Paradza and retired Judge Blackie is that the principle witnesses to prove the alleged charges would be fellow judges. This is pitting 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. While judges are not above the law, subjecting them to arrest and detention in such humiliating circumstances is tantamount to intimidation of the gravest kind. This leaves a chilling effect on the independence of the judiciary."
"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, which have resulted in the resignations of several senior judges and which have left Zimbabwe's rule of law in tatters.
"When judges can be set against one another, then intimidated with arrest, detention and criminal prosecution there is no hope for the rule of law which is the cornerstone of democracy. It paves the way for governmental lawlessness," the Special Rapporteur said.



* *** *