Student activist Simbarashe Moyo, who was arrested while attending a ZINASU meeting, told Human Rights Watch: At the ZINASU congress in May [2006] police pounced and arrested everyone. There were 48 of us. We spent four days in the police cells. We were interrogated. They were asking us, “Who are you working for? What were you doing? What have you been discussing?” As they were doing this they were slapping us around. Each time they asked a question they would slap you or hit you with a fist…. After [two days] we were released without charge.51 Police torture and mistreatment of 15 trade unionists In the context of the suppression of the September 13, 2006, mass demonstrations involving Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions members (see Section IV, above), police took 15 trade unionists whom they had arrested at a Harare demonstration, including ZCTU President Lovemore Matomobo and Secretary General Wellington Chibebe, to Matapi police station.52 According to the activists, soon after they arrived at the station five police officers took them in pairs to a room and proceeded to brutally beat them. In a DVD obtained by Human Rights Watch the trade unionists reported that police beat them with batons and punched and kicked them. Some said that the police had repeatedly banged their heads against the wall. During the beatings police allegedly accused the unionists of “working with the whites,” and attempting to overthrow the government. The beatings, which lasted for between 15 and 20 minutes, were so severe that a number of the unionists lost consciousness.53 Lawyers representing the unionists told Human Rights Watch that they were initially denied access to their clients and that police refused to provide the injured unionists with medical assistance. After almost 24 hours in custody the unionists were eventually taken to Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare after lawyers obtained a court 51 52 Human Rights Watch interview with Simbarashe Moyo, Harare, September 27, 2006. Ibid. 53 DVD of demonstrations of ZCTU activists and interviews with the beaten activists in hospital, on file with Human Rights Watch. 19 Human rights watch November 2006