Fears over judge

The International Bar Association (IBA) and the Law Society have written to the Zimbabwe government expressing grave concern at the recent arrest of retired judge Fergus Blackie.

Mr Justice Blackie was arrested in Harare last week, and his current whereabouts and the exact reasons for his arrest are unknown.

Society vice-president Peter Williamson said in his letter to President Robert Mugabe that 'we are reliably informed that the probable reason for Fergus Blackie's arrest is his conviction, on 17 July 2002, of Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa on two counts of contempt of court'.

The IBA, in its letter to Zimbabwe's Attorney-General Andrew Chigovera, stressed that the United Nations prohibits the use of torture and ill-treatment for detainees, and urged the government to ensure that the case 'will proceed in accordance with the principles of natural justice'.

The Society has also written to the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, expressing concern for the safety of law student Boniface Rukumbuzi and seven other refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The eight men were arrested in Burundi and forcibly returned to the Congo, where they were detained and allegedly beaten by military police.

Mr Williamson has also expressed concern to Juan Francisco Reyes Lopez, the vice-president of Guatemala, regarding threats to the safety of lawyer Roberto Romero, his son, and Carmen Aida Ibarra, political adviser to a campaigning charity.

Mr Romero and Ms Ibarra are involved in the trial against three military officials who allegedly ordered the execution of anthropologist Myrna Mack in 1990.

They have allegedly received threatening telephone calls and have been followed in the street.

Victoria MacCallum