TORTURE IN ZIMBABWE, PAST AND PRESENT appealed against the sentences as being too lenient. In 2001, after they had already been deported, the appeal was heard and the new Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku ruled that they ought to have served five years in jail. 136 The case is significant in that the trial court specifically recorded the failure of the State to properly investigate detailed complaints of torture. Attorney General Chinamasa was soon promoted to Minister of Justice. No steps have ever been taken against the torturers. ̸» ¬±®¬«®» ±º Ó¿-»®¿ô Æ«´«ô Ó±§±ô Í·¾¿²¼¿ô Ó°±º«ô Ü«´·²·óÒ½«¾» One week before the June 2000 parliamentary elections, war veterans kidnapped MDC polling agent Patrick Nabanyama from his home in Bulawayo. He was never seen again but no body has ever been found. The alleged kidnappers were arrested and charged with murder in 2001. One of the accused was Cain Nkala, a war veteran leader in Bulawayo, and shortly before the trial was due to begin it appeared that he was going to reveal which senior Zanu-PF leaders had ordered Nabanyama’s disappearance. In November 2001 Nkala himself was kidnapped from his home in circumstances very similar to the disappearance of Nabanyama, and within days several MDC members were arrested and charged. On State television Vice President Msika said MP David Coltart was behind the war veteran’s kidnapping; Nkala’s body was found in a shallow grave a few days later, and the Government announced that this was as a result of information from some of the arrested MDC members, who were shown on State television indicating the whereabouts of the corpse. The next day a Zanu-PF mob led by former political leader Dumiso Dabengwa and escorted by the police marched through the streets of Bulawayo. The MDC offices were burnt down, and according to press reports 137 the mob stopped the fire brigade from attending the blaze; in turn MDC supporters retaliated, setting fire to a Zanu-PF building and fighting with riot police. MDC members charged with Nkala’s murder were kept in custody under appalling conditions for many months. The trial of six of them began in February 2003: Sonny Masera, Army Zulu, Remember Moyo, Kethani Sibanda, Sazini Mpofu and DuliniNcube, an MDC MP. Dulini-Ncube was apparently denied treatment for his diabetes whilst in custody and later had to have an eye surgically removed. The other arrested war veterans were tried and acquitted of Nabanyama’s murder, on the basis that they had indeed kidnapped him but then handed him over to Nkala. Nkala was dead, Nabanyama’s body had never been found, and there was no evidence to link them to the latter’s death. They were never subsequently charged with kidnapping, despite their admissions. At the Nkala murder trial the six accused MDC men maintained that the police extracted the evidence against them under torture, and a trial-within-a-trial was held to determine the admissibility of this evidence. The police denied that any of the men had been ill treated in any way. In March 2004 the trial judge ruled that the evidence was indeed inadmissible. In her 60-page judgment she meticulously analysed the evidence of police officers involved in the case, contrasting their stories with that of the accused and each other, and including examinations of 136 S v Blanchard and Others 2001 (2) ZLR (S). 137 See ZWNEWS report 6 March 2004, a feature article apparently compiled from various press reports at the time of these dramatic events. 26