Harare - Efforts were underway Monday to secure freedom for a worker from Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's arm of the country's coalition government, with his lawyers saying he needed medical attention after undergoing "severe torture" for four days. Pascal Gwezere, 26, a transport manager for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, was grabbed from his home October 27. His location was discovered only on Sunday after a tip-off to lawyers, human rights activists said.
He was the first political activist reported to have been tortured by authorities since the inauguration of the power-sharing government between President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai in February.
"Between Tuesday and Saturday he was blindfolded, being moved constantly from one place to another, and thoroughly assaulted by police and other state agents," said lawyer Alec Muchadehama.
Gwezere was remanded into custody by a court on Saturday following a hearing held without his lawyers' knowledge.
His abduction and alleged torture is one of a series of incidents of violence and harassment against the MDC perpetrated by state security officials since Tsvangirai on October 16 declared he was "disengaging" from the Zanu-PF, the other party in the governing coalition, headed by Mugabe.
The MDC's decision came about after Mugabe's refusal to implement democratic reforms. State security is still under Mugabe's control.
United Nations special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak was barred entry from the country on Friday last week while Gwezere was in the hands of the authorities.
Muchadehama said Gwezere showed clear signs of severe assault. "His whole body is swollen. His left leg is in a terrible state, he bled from it for two days," he said. "He cannot walk properly. We are trying to get him to be seen by a private doctor, but the state is preventing us."
Muchadehama said Gwezere was being charged with the theft of weapons from a military barracks in Harare, as well as with "undergoing terrorist training in Uganda."
The MDC has called the charges against Gwezere "trumped-up."
