By Talent Gondo- President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has claimed that a trade unionist who was abducted and brutally tortured on Wednesday night, staged the whole incident and tortured himself “to put Zimbabwe in very bad light” during political dialogue with the European Union.

The president of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Association of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) Obert Masaraure was abducted from his Harare home by a group of suspected state security agents, taken to a secluded place, then stripped naked and beaten.

The incident came hours after the European Union (EU) held talks with the Zimbabwe government, the first in a series of meetings aimed at ending years of strained relations over Harare’s alleged rights abuses.  

In an interview with the state media, Information and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary Nick Mangwana said the wounds that Masaraure had were self-inflicted .