Five civil society activists who were arrested on allegations of undergoing training to violently overthrow President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government are reported to be undergoing cruel and inhumane conditions at the Remand Prison.

According to one of the lawyers representing the five, Rose Hanzi from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the five were denied warm jerseys at the prison despite the fact that Zimbabwe is now in its winter season.

Four of the human rights campaigners namely George Makoni aged 38 years, Tatenda Mombeyarara aged 37 years, Gamuchirai Mukura aged 31 years, Nyasha Mpahlo aged 35 years were arrested on Monday 20 May 2019 upon disembarking from a South African Airways while Farirai Gumbonzvanda aged 26 years, was arrested on Tuesday 21 May at Robert Mugabe International Airport.

According to the ZRP, Makoni, an Advocacy Officer with Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe, Mombeyerara of International Socialist Organisation, Mukura of Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development, Mpahlo of Green Governance Zimbabwe and Gumbonzvanda, a volunteer at Rosaria Memorial Trust, allegedly connived with their accomplices, who are still at large and travelled to Maldives on 13 May 2019, where they attended a training workshop organised by Centre for Applied Non Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), a Serbian non-governmental organisation, with the intention of subverting a constitutionally elected government.

Harare Magistrate Hosea Mujaya remanded the five human rights activists in custody to 6 June 2019. Their lawyers have since said that they will be appealing the judgement at the High Court- iHarare.com