Already in August 2004, Justice Sandra Mungwira had drawn attention to the police’s propensity to arrest MDC activists on trumped-up charges. In acquitting six MDC supporters charged with the murder of a war veteran, Justice Mungwira had found that the 14 police officers tasked with investigating the case had “spewed untruths,” their records were “an appalling piece of fiction,” and they had acted shamefully when they tortured MDC activists to force them to confess to a crime they did not commit.102 A police constable, who was part of a team tasked with fabricating evidence against MDC activists in Harare after the March 29, 2008, elections, told Human Rights Watch: The officer-in-charge of Law and Order Section, Harare Charge Office, made it clear to all nine police officers in my team that we had to arrest and detain MDC activists by any means necessary, and that it was our responsibility to make up cases against MDC activists since we are “at war” with MDC.103 Marvellous Khumalo, MDC member of parliament for St Mary’s Chitungwiza, told Human Rights Watch: On four occasions between March and July 2008 l was arrested by police at St Mary’s police station when l had gone there to enquire about detained MDC supporters from my constituency. On each of those four occasions the police accused me of inciting political violence in my constituency. MDC victims of political violence now fear to go to police because the police tend to arrest the victims and not the perpetrators of violence.104 On April 25, 2008, more than 40 armed men raided the MDC headquarters in Harare where victims of political violence from around the country, numbering some 250, 102 “Mugabe moulds pliant judges,” Institute of War and Peace Reporting,(May 30, 2006), http://www.iwpr.net/?p=acr&s=f&o=321302&apc_state=heniacr2006 (accessed October 30, 2008). 103 Human Rights Watch interview with police constable, Harare, August 29, 2008. 104 Human Rights Watch interview with Marvellous Khumalo, Chitungwiza, August 26, 2008. “Our Hands Are Tied” 32