Specific Cases Ÿ A group of 24 MDC Alliance members were locked up and detained without food or water at the MDC Alliance’s Headquarters in Harare by the police who kept watch at the entrance for two days. The police subsequently arrested the group and transported them to Harare Central Police Station in a police truck. The group was further detained before being taken to court. The group was given bail and was not tried by the end of the year. Ÿ At the end of 2018, members of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) were arrested after their march from Mutare to Harare agitating for a living wage for teachers pegged in US dollars. Ÿ On 13 July, police arbitrarily arrested three MDC Alliance members when they attempted to observe postal voting at a police camp in Mutare, citing trespassing and violation of the Electoral Act. The trio was not charged. Similarly, prosecutors declined to charge three ZCTU members in Gweru who police arrested for demonstrating against government economic measures on 11 October. Ÿ Two individuals were arrested and taken to Braeside Police Station in Harare and were severely beaten by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers using sledge hammers. Their lawyer was denied access while the officers were assaulting the two. One of the clients appeared in court the following day at Mbare Magistrates Court with a blood-stained shirt. The lawyers protested the conduct in court, and the State’s response was simply that they would investigate. Nothing was ever done about the violations. Ÿ Senior MDC Alliance official Tendai Biti was detained while trying to flee Zimbabwe via Zambia and was forcibly returned to Harare on 9 August. Biti was initially denied access to legal counsel and was subsequently charged with inciting violence and unlawfully announcing election results. ZLHR reported that police severely assaulted Biti’s lawyer and deliberately prevented him from accompanying Biti to Harare Central Police Station. Ÿ When Jim Kunaka, the former leader of ZANU-PF aligned vigilante group Chipangano, was arrested, lawyers found it difficult to get access to him at the CID Law and Order section at Harare Central Police Station. Lawyers were referred from office to office, until eventually they managed to access him. While at the station, six unidentified men in suits set up recording equipment and requested to interview Kunaka. The men refused to identify themselves and they only relented after Kunaka's lawyers persisted in their protest against their conduct. Magistrates heard most cases amid concerns and a perception of interference with judicial independence. However, some urban-based junior magistrates demonstrated a greater degree of independence and granted opposition party members and civil society activists bail against the government's wishes. Reports of judicial corruption were widespread, extending beyond magistrates and judges. In cases involving members of political parties or civil society critical of the government, prosecuting agents regularly took abnormally long to submit their cases for trial. There appeared to be a trend to use the remand procedures to punish accused persons, especially in politically sensitive cases. The prosecutors and police also routinely retained material confiscated from the accused as evidence. 26 STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ZIMBABWE 2018