{"id":2948,"date":"2019-02-02T14:35:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-02T14:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=2948"},"modified":"2019-02-02T14:35:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-02T14:35:54","slug":"riot-police-crash-gweru-lawyers-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/riot-police-crash-gweru-lawyers-march","title":{"rendered":"Riot police crash Gweru lawyers march"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>RIOT police yesterday blocked Gweru lawyers from marching in protest against the alleged absence of rule of law and lack of independence of the magistrates\u2019 courts.<\/p>\n<p>The legal practitioners under the Gweru Lawyers\u2019 Association banner sought to voice concern over the blanket denial of bail by Gweru magistrates to MDC MPs arrested after the fuel price hike protests.<\/p>\n<p>They also intended to protest against the degrading treatment of youths, accused of public violence during the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions protests, including their being denied bail.<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsd-1408373960\" class=\"newsd-2nd-advert-incontent\"><\/div>\n<p>However, armed riot police, with water cannons, swooped on the lawyers at a hotel in the Midlands capital and forcibly dispersed them.<\/p>\n<p>Gweru Lawyers\u2019 Association spokesperson, Esau Mandipa, told NewsDay Weekender that police had been duly notified of the march on Wednesday January 30 as per requirements of the law.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-2\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe condemn the behaviour of the police because they violated our right to peaceful demonstration,\u201d Mandipa said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe notified them two days before and only on the day of the march that is when they came to us saying we could not march because police were understaffed due to the national clean up campaign where deployments had been made. We are saddened by the heavy-handedness of the police. At my office, for example,\u00a0 there were 10 riot cops manning the entrance for unknown reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also said the lawyers intended to hand a petition to provincial magistrate Charity Maphosa and regional magistrate Pathekile Msipa, outlining the breakdown of rule of law and the lack of independence of the courts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have since postponed our march to Monday. We will not rest until the rule of law and independence of the judiciary is restored. You cannot have a blanket denial of bail for all MPs when their circumstances are obviously different. It\u2019s unfair at law,\u201d Mandipa said.<\/p>\n<p>MPs who have been denied bail at the Gweru Magistrates\u2019 Courts are Amos Chibaya (Mkoba) and Livingstone Chimina (Chiwundura), while Lloyd Mukapiko (Redcliff) and Settlement Chikwinya (Mbizo) faced the same fate at Kwekwe Magistrates\u2019 Courts.<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsd-1070969751\" class=\"newsd-ads-links\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RIOT police yesterday blocked Gweru lawyers from marching in protest against the alleged absence of rule of law and lack of independence of the magistrates\u2019 courts. The legal practitioners under the Gweru Lawyers\u2019 Association banner sought to voice concern over the blanket denial of bail by Gweru magistrates to MDC MPs arrested after the fuel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[168,53,167],"class_list":{"0":"post-2948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-gweru","10":"tag-police","11":"tag-protesters"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Riot police crash Gweru lawyers march - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/riot-police-crash-gweru-lawyers-march\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Riot police crash Gweru lawyers march\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RIOT police yesterday blocked Gweru lawyers from marching in protest against the alleged absence of rule of law and lack of independence of the magistrates\u2019 courts. The legal practitioners under the Gweru Lawyers\u2019 Association banner sought to voice concern over the blanket denial of bail by Gweru magistrates to MDC MPs arrested after the fuel [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/riot-police-crash-gweru-lawyers-march\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-02T14:35:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/14\/2019\/01\/Riot-Police-seen-chasing-away-commuter-operators-buy-throwing-tear-gas-in-Chitungwiza-yesterday-Pic-Shepherd-Tozvireva1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"668\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/riot-police-crash-gweru-lawyers-march\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/riot-police-crash-gweru-lawyers-march\",\"name\":\"Riot police crash Gweru lawyers march - 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