Zimbabwe newsmen face new charges

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Four journalists from Zimbabwe's only independent newspaper are facing new charges over a story alleging police involvement in farm lootings.

Just one day after court threw out earlier charges, Geoffrey Nyarota, editor-in-chief of the Daily News and three senior colleagues were called to Harare's central police and charged with publishing subversive material.

Hours earlier, Nyarota told CNN his arrest on Tuesday was "part of the ongoing harassment of Zimbabwe's journalists." Anticipating his second arrest he said he expected the authorities "to have another go."

The journalists' lawyer Lawrence Chibwe told Reuters that the four men were charged on Thursday under Section 44 (2) (b) of the Law and Order Maintenance Act.

"The new charge is publishing a subversive statement. At this juncture I have been promised that they will not be incarcerated or detained," Chibwe said, adding that the four were later released after making statements.

"The next logical step is to issue summons for purposes of a trial. But I don't really think it's a charge the police will try to pursue," he said.

But chief police spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said the force would pursue its case.

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"We are still making investigations and Nyarota will be going to court. I don't know when, but it should be very soon," Bvudzijena told the news agency.

In a separate development, Zimbabwe's High Court has reserved judgment until Friday on whether to grant bail to 20 white farmers charged with inciting public violence.

The farmers, from the Chinhoyi district 120 kms (70 miles) north of Harare, have been in custody since August 6.

They were arrested after clashes with pro-government militants who had occupied their properties.

Nyarota told CNN that his arrest on Tuesday was illegal and constituted harassment. "The timing of my arrests lends credence to this," he added.

"They woke me from my sleep to arrest me, as though I was a fugitive from the law, as though this was a criminal case.

"That alone suggests I was being harassed."

The Law and Order Maintenance Act, dating from Zimbabwe's colonial past, makes it illegal to publish any story considered "false" by the authorities, and carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

Nyarota has for some time been a thorn in the side of President Robert Mugabe's government.

In the last couple of years his paper has published wide-ranging allegations of corruption and mismanagement against Mugabe and his ministers.

Such activities have lead to a number of run-ins with the authorities.

In April, Nyarota and two of his reporters were questioned and charged with defaming Mugabe, while last August he alleged that a plot by the state Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to kill him had only failed when the hired assassin lost his nerve and revealed the details to his intended victim.

In January a bomb destroyed the paper's printing press in what the Daily News said was a politically motivated attack.

The former British colony has experienced severe economic and political disruption since March 2000 when ruling party militants, led by veterans of the 1980 independence war, illegally occupied more than 1,700 farms.

The last week has witnessed especially violent clashes in Chinhoyi, violence that the government blames on white farmers.

The farmers, however, have denied initiating the clashes, saying they went to the aid of a colleague under siege from squatters led by war veterans. The farmers say they were attacked first.

At least 30 homesteads have been looted and white families have been evacuated from about 100 farms.