By A Correspondent| Two Egyptian nationals were arbitrarily detained by Zimbabwe immigration officials under opaque circumstances.
The two Egyptians Emad Awny Elgamal and Khaled Fuozi Foudza, were arrested by immigration officials on 6 March and detained at Harare Remand Prison on the pretext that the immigration officials intended to “verify their documents” and no charges were preferred against them ever since they were detained.
The duo was detained notwithstanding the fact that they had valid visitors’ permits which allowed them to stay in Zimbabwe after they entered the country lawfully through Beitbridge Border Post.
Upon their arrival at Beitbridge Border Post, the two Egyptians had presented their documents to the immigration officials, who were satisfied and issued them with valid visitors’ permits authorising them to stay in Zimbabwe for 30 days.
On 27 March, Elgamal and Foudza engaged Harare lawyer Brighton Sadowera of Sadowera Kuwana Legal Practitioners, who filed an urgent chamber application at Harare High Court seeking an order compelling the immigration officials to immediately release them.
Sadowera also asked the High Court to declare the provisions of section 8 of the Immigration Act, which allows immigration officers to detain people arbitrarily for 14 days without taking them to court, to be in violation of the rights of detained persons guaranteed in terms of section 50(2)(b) of the Constitution, which guarantees the right of every person detained for a suspected offence to be taken to court within 48 hours of their detention.
The lawyer also argued that the two Egyptians were entitled to their immediate release in any case, because the 14 days period which the immigration officers and prison services are allowed to detain people in terms of section 8 of the Immigration Act had lapsed.
On 5 April, when the application was set down for hearing before High Court Judge Justice Pisirayi Kwenda, Respect Gono, the Chief Director of Immigration, conceded that her organisation was unlawfully detaining the two Egyptians and hence they were entitled to their release and would facilitate their return to the North African country.
This saw the matter being removed from the court roll owing to the concession made by the Chief Director of Immigration.
Resultantly, Elgamal and Foudza were released from prison on 6 April and their lawyers escorted them to Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, where they flew back to Egypt.