According to magistrates and lawyers whom Human Rights Watch interviewed, in rural areas the government does not now take chances when MDC supporters and activists are arrested. It dispatches a delegation of partisan senior magistrates and prosecutors from Harare to handle “political cases” wherever they occur.56 When police arrested Ian Kay, an MDC member of parliament for Marondera Central province, the resident prosecutor for Marondera instructed the police to release him. However, a senior prosecutor sent from Harare intervened and insisted that Kay should be charged and detained.57 In a case that demonstrates the perils faced by an impartial judicial officer, Musaiona Shortgame, a resident magistrate in Gutu, Masvingo province, was harassed and victimized by government agents for allegedly handing down judgments viewed by the government as contrary to the result it was seeking.58 The persistent persecution of Shortgame culminated in an attack on his property on April 21, 2008, when unidentified persons entered his homestead and set fire to his vehicle. The attack followed threats from ZANU-PF supporters in the area.59 In Bindura, Mashonaland Central province, on June 23, 2008, a group of ZANU-PF youths severely assaulted senior magistrate Felix Mawadze as he left a supermarket. Their stated reason for the assault was that he granted bail to detained MDC activists accused of political violence.60 To date no arrests have been made in this case, even though police reports were filed.61 Dr. Lovemore Madhuku told Human Rights Watch how some magistrates were persecuting MDC and civil society activists: The general pattern is that an accused person in political cases is arrested without a proper investigation or charge, denied bail for up to 56 Human Rights Watch interviews with several lawyers, Harare, August 25 and 26, 2008. 57 Human Rights Watch interview with Ian Kay, Harare, August 22, 2008. 58 Joint Appeal by the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Lawyers of Human Rights and International Commission of Jurists on the situation of lawyers, human rights defenders and civil society organizations, June 2008. 59 Ibid. 60 Human Rights Watch interview with Shepherd Mushonga, Harare, August 19, 2008. 61 Ibid. “Our Hands Are Tied” 20